Kingdom Hearts of an Eastern Wonderland
by Frost Matrix
Summary: Kids do their best now and are preparing. Please watch warmly until it is ready. The boundaries of light and darkness are in disarray. A hero and a miko are the ones who will open the door.
1. A Heart More Scarlet Than Red

"_I've been having these weird thoughts lately."_

_**having**_

_**weird**_

_**real**_

_**or not?**_

"_Like, is any of this real… or not?"_

_**real**_

_**not?**_

"…_You're telling me."_

_**tell**_

_**me**_

_**what do you**_

_**know…?**_

"_The only thing that lets me know this is a dream…"_

_**know**_

_**a**_

_**dream**_

"…_Is the music that keeps playing in my head…"_

_**a**_

_**maiden's**_

_**capriccio**_

* * *

_Two bodies were floating down slowly in what seemed to be underwater, a young boy and girl, both their eyes half opened as if trying to stay conscious. A large beam of light guided them down, down, down, until…_

_They both jolted their eyes open. The two of them were standing on a brightly lit beach. They looked around in confusion, then turned their eyes to the water. The sun was shining in their eyes, but they could see two other people standing in the waves; a different pair of a boy and a girl with a large hat, facing the opposite direction. The first boy shielded his eyes while the first girl tilted her head. The boy took a small step, but went back as he looked at the large tide. Suddenly, the girl gasped and the boy looked up to see a rather large wave coming towards the two in the water. Slowly, the boy in the water turned around towards them, smiling, and held out his hand to them, while the girl in the hat stayed with her back to the three of them. The boy started and ran to the other boy, as the girl seemed to hop on the waves towards the other girl. Before they could reach the other pair, however, the wave crashed into them, and the first boy and girl were swept away by the current._

_After a few spins, the boy and girl looked up to see the other two, standing as if nothing was wrong, as if they weren't even underwater, on the seafloor. The boy was still holding out his hand to them, but the other girl, hat still on her head despite the current, had turned to face them, yet despite her standing there next to the smiling boy, she seemed to be asleep. The first pair tried to swim towards the second, but their efforts were in vain as they were swept away by the current again._

_Suddenly, the boy found himself floating up to the surface of the water. It seemed to be sunset now, and the other girls and boy were nowhere in sight. However, a third, red-haired girl was standing at the water's edge, calling and waving to him. He waved back, and started towards her. He reached her and panted, as she laughed. Her laugh turned into a look of surprise though, as they turned and saw shooting stars falling down the sky. The boy saw a dark shape and realized it was the body of the other, first girl, falling down. Without warning, he fell backwards into the water, the red-haired girl looking down in shock. Then, he realized __he__ was falling down from the sky as well. _

_He fell headfirst into the water, back into the darkness of the depths. He saw the first girl floating down next to him, looking at him with a confused face. They tumbled and swirled down, until finally they landed, back to back, on a dark platform. They looked around, trying to figure out where they were. The boy took a step, and the blackness of the platform dissolved into white birds, flying around the two in a spiral, as the platform revealed itself as a stain-glass image of a sleeping girl. The platform was green and emitted light. The boy and girl watched the birds fly away into the darkness, then looked down at the platform itself._

* * *

The boy and girl looked around, still confused. They looked at each other, and the girl was about to say something, when-

_So much to do, so little time…_

They both started. The boy gave the girl a look that said, 'you heard that too, right?' She nodded.

_Take your time. Don't be afraid._

_The door is still shut. _

_Now, step forward. _

_Can you do it?_

The boy looked at the girl and shrugged. They both took a few steps toward the center of the platform.  
The light coming down from above disappeared, and the girl looked up, wondering where it had gone. The boy looked around as three pedestals rose from the ground.

_Power sleeps within you._

_If you give it form…_

_It will give you strength. _

_Choose well._

The boy walked over to the pedestals, each with an item floating above them: a sword, a shield, and a staff. No… a wand. He looked at them all, and looked back at the girl. She walked up to the wand, and reached out to grab it. Instantly, some sort of invisible barrier pushed her hand back. She looked at the boy and raised an eyebrow. Then, the voice came again.

_Not yet. Please watch warmly until he is ready._

She looked at him, and he shrugged. He went up to the sword, and tentatively reached out for it. Unlike the wand with the girl, no barrier stopped him from grabbing it. He pulled it close to him and examined it. It was a regular looking sword, with a yellow hilt and blue handle. A small red circle was in the middle of the hilt, and three tiny black circles were inside it, making a shape that resembled a mouse head.

_The power of a warrior._

_Invincible courage._

_A sword of terrible destruction._

_Is this the power you seek?_

The boy looked up, at the girl who shrugged, at the sword, then back up again.

"Y-yes." He spoke aloud. Instantly, the sword disappeared in a flash of light that surrounded him.

_Your path is set._

_Now, what will you give up in exchange?_

The boy turned toward the other two items. He looked from the wand to the shield.

"Um…" He said softly. He looked to the girl. She tilted her head.

"Don't look at me. I have no idea what's happening."

He looked back at the items.

"You're no help." He walked towards the wand, then back to the shield. After looking back and forth a few more times, he looked at the shield with determination. He walked to it and jumped on the pedestal, grabbing the shield.

_The power of the guardian._

_Kindness to aid friends._

_A shield to repel all._

_You give up this power?_

He looked up again.

"Yeah." After saying this, the shield disappeared in the same way the sword did. The voice came back.

_You've chosen the power of the warrior._

_You've given up the power of the guardian._

_Is this the form you choose?_

"I guess." He said.

_Then please, if you would._

The pedestals began to glow, and the boy jumped off. Where the sword had been, a wooden rod tied with white paper streamers appeared. Where the shield had been, a large red and white orb with a yin-yang design replaced it. The wand was still there, but, in a flash of light, was replaced by a small rectangular piece of paper, with odd red writing on it. As with the boy's items, these ones had the little mouse head symbol on them; the rod's paper segments, the small circles on the yin-yang orb, and in the center of the writing of the piece of paper, the symbol was neatly drawn on, also in red. The girl stepped forward.

_Your power is great, and equals his._

_However, you have a different part to play…_

_But that doesn't make it any less important._

_What will your choice be?_

The girl put her hands on her hips and looked at the three items. She walked slowly and deliberately in a circle, looking over each one carefully. The boy waited, wondering which one she would pick, and what they even did.

Eventually, she came up to the small piece of paper.

"What does this do?" She asked aloud, and grabbed it.

_The power of the shooter._

_Powerful if used properly._

_Spell cards bring destructive colors._

_Is this the power you seek?_

The girl looked for a moment, then shook her head.

"What?" asked the boy.

"I want to see what the other two are." She said simply. The boy nodded. Unlike the sword and shield, he didn't know at first glance what these things were. The girl walked up to the orb, and touched it.

_The power of the familiar._

_Protection from above._

_The yin-yang orb can be disguised as a cat._

_Is this the power you seek?_

She looked blankly up.

"…Um. No, thanks." She put the orb back. The boy was scratching his head at the last line the voice had said. The girl turned to the rod and grabbed it with no hesitation.

_The power of the miko._

_Divine purifying powers._

_A gohei fitting for a maiden of paradise._

_Is this the power you seek?_

The girl looked at it, then towards the other two items.

"You know what? Sure. I like this one." As with the boy's sword, the _gohei_ disappeared in a flash of light. The girl blinked a few times.

_Your path is set._

_Now, what will you give up in exchange?_

Without skipping a beat, she pointed at the large yin-yang orb.

"Don't want it."

_You give up this power?_

"Take it." Like the shield, the orb disappeared in a flash.

_You've chosen the power of the miko._

_You've given up the power of the familiar._

_Is this the form you choose?_

The girl nodded with a smile. She hopped down from the pedestal and walked to the boy. The 'spell card' vanished, and with a loud rumbling, the pedestals sank back into the ground. But that wasn't the only thing happening; the girl gasped, and the boy turned around to see the stained-glass floor shattering away. They both fell down into darkness once more.

For a few seconds, they could only see each other. Then, they saw a new platform appear: a blue one, with a woman in a white dress. Like the girl on the other platform, this woman seemed to be sleeping as well. They both landed lightly on the ground. In a mass of sparkles, the sword appeared in the boy's hand, and the _gohei_ in the girl's.

_You've gained the power to fight._

They looked at each other blankly.

"Uh…" The boy looked down at his sword. He gripped the handle with both hands and dropped into a fighting stance, and swung at the air with the weapon. His eyes followed the blade as he swung around, hitting imaginary enemies clumsily.

The girl watched silently, and then decided to move as well. Her stance wasn't as deep as his, but while he used both his hands to hold the sword, one hand was good enough for her. She swung her _gohei _fast and sharply, and the two mimicked each other's strikes.

_All right! You've got it._

_Use this power to protect yourself and others. _

The two looked at each other and smiled. Then, out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw a shadow appear on the white dress. She pointed at it, and the boy turned and leaned in for a closer look.

_There will be times you have to fight._

_Keep your light burning strong._

The shadow grew into an odd black creature with antennae and glowing yellow orbs for eyes. More of the odd creatures started to form from nowhere. The boy and girl glanced at each other with worried looks, but nodded and ran towards the creatures. The boy slashed with his sword and the girl struck with her _gohei_, both of them doing considerable damage to the small creatures. Eventually, the remaining ones melted into the ground. The boy and girl high-fived. Their celebration was short lived, however, as-

_Behind you!_

The girl looked over the boy's shoulder and saw a creature jumping towards the back-turned boy. The boy glanced quickly, then, with one swing, slashed the creature in midair, destroying it. Once again, more creatures appeared. The boy and girl dealt with them accordingly. One was left, however, and as it melted into the ground, a much bigger glob of darkness came with it. The darkness spread over the platform until the boy and girl were being pulled under with it.

They opened their eyes and found themselves struggling on the floor of yet another platform. This one was mainly pink with three large heart shapes. Inside the hearts were three white silhouettes. The boy and girl stood up to find themselves facing a door. A lone beam of light was shining on it, and it was slightly transparent. They walked up to it.

"How are we supposed to open it…?" The boy asked, crossing his arms. The girl's hands were on her hips again. She turned to look around, and saw another beam of light shine down, and a chest appear with a small sparkle. She nudged the boy and pointed. He walked over to it, and tapped it with his sword. Instantly, it opened, and then disappeared with yet another sparkle. They turned, and saw a large wooden crate appear. The girl walked over to it and tried tapping it as he had done, yet nothing happened. Disappointed, she scowled, and she swung her _gohei_ down on it, _hard_. A few smacks, and the crate was smashed. When this happened, the door seemed a bit more solid. They both turned and saw a wooden barrel appear from nowhere. They looked at each other, then both ran to it, and smacked it simultaneously, destroying it. With that, the door became completely solid. The two walked up to it, but before they even moved their hands to grab the handles, the door opened of its own accord. Light seeped through, almost blinding the two of them, but shielding their eyes, they walked through it.

_Hold on._

_The door won't open just yet._

_First, tell me more about yourselves._

They were no longer in the dark area; they seemed to be on a wooden lookout, with sea surrounding them. Three other children, two boys and a girl, sat and stood, watching them. The duo walked towards the girl, who was sitting on a fence railing.

"What's most important to you?" She asked.

The boy and girl looked at each other, then back to the sitting girl.

"Um… my friends." The boy said. The girl shrugged and nodded.

The sitting girl giggled.

"Is friendship such a big deal?"

They turned and walked towards a boy standing in a corner.

"What are you so afraid of?" He asked.

The pair didn't look at each other, but both shifted uncomfortably.

"I guess… being alone." The girl said slowly.

"…Being abandoned." The boy said softly.

The standing boy grinned.

"Is that really so scary?"

"Shut up." The girl said, and she turned to the last boy. Her companion followed. The last boy was holding a ball.

"What do you want outta life?" He asked.

Both the boy and girl thought for a moment.

"Excitement." The girl said. She looked at the boy.

"To be strong, I guess." He said.

"To be strong, huh?" The ball-carrying boy asked. He started to twirl the ball on his finger.

_You want friendship._

_You're afraid of being alone and abandoned._

_You want excitement, and to be strong. _

_Your adventure begins at twilight._

_If you do not let the fog deceive you, your journey should be on the path to truth. _

"Um... sounds good." Said the boy, placing his hands behind his head. The girl, however, frowned.

_The day you will open the door is both far off and very near._

Suddenly, the two of them were in the dark place again, on a new platform. This one was red, and had the image of a beautiful sleeping woman surrounded by thorns. A large beam of light was shining down, and they both ran towards it. As they reached it, it disappeared, and they found themselves surrounded by even more of the small black creatures from before. The boy and girl rushed in, beating the creatures with their sword and _gohei_, respectively. When they had finished, a beam of light shot down to the ground; however, this beam was much brighter than the beams before it. The boy and girl walked into the light, instantly felt refreshed, and it moved to the other side of the platform. Reaching the edge, it disappeared, and smaller stained-glass platforms appeared, making a walkway. The duo ran to the walkway and began to climb. Eventually, they arrived at a new platform; this one was yellow and had the image of a sleeping woman in a yellow ball dress, a rose, and some sort of beast behind her.

A much larger beam of light was shining down on this one. The two looked at each other, nodded, and walked slowly to it, looking up. The boy smiled, looking up into the light, but the girl was the one who heard what the voice said next.

_The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes._

She shrieked. The boy turned- and saw his shadow elongated all the way to the edge of the rose and morphed into a copy of the boy, but black and dark blue. He gasped as it grew from that.

_But don't be afraid._

He stepped back. The girl was frozen, looking at the large, black monster that had grown from the boy's own shadow, staring at its large hands and feet, and its piercing yellow eyes. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back with him.

_And don't forget…_

Still holding her arm, he turned and the two of them ran to the edge of the platform, just stopping before falling down. They slowly turned to the gigantic monster. He pulled out his sword, and looked expectantly at the girl. She swallowed, nodded, and brought out her _gohei_. They ran forward towards the monster. He jumped at a lowered hand and began to swing. She did the same, with the opposite hand. Eventually, the hand she was attacking rose up and began to glow. She fled to the hand the boy was hitting, as the other hand was slammed down into the ground, and a large black pool of darkness appeared with it. The smaller creatures from earlier crawled out, and began swiping at the boy's legs.

"I'll handle the little ones!" The girl shouted, and began hacking away. The boy nodded and started slashing the monster's head. Soon, however, the monster leaned backward, and where there was a large heart-shaped hole in its chest, blue light began to form. With a large twitch-like motion, beams seemed to come out from the light, and began homing their way to the girl and boy. As they were hit with each beam, they both cried out with pain, and began darting around, trying not to be hit again. Whenever they got close, they attacked the monster, but until the beams stopped, they kept running, trying not to get hurt.

The monster repeated this pattern several times, each time the boy and girl getting more and more confident that they could do this. Finally, the monster staggered back a step. The boy and girl quickly rushed in together. With two large jumps, they both reached its head, and swung down their weapons with all their might. The monster leaned forward, the two of them falling to the ground, landing on their bottoms. The sword and the _gohei_ both disappeared, to the horror of the boy and the girl. They looked at each other and stared up at the monster. It had dug its claws into the ground, and was leaning over them menacingly. It got close—

The ground around the boy and girl was suddenly covered in darkness. Slowly, they both began to sink.

—_But don't be afraid._

The darkness began to cover the boy's leg, and the girl's arms. They both tried to cry out, but no sound could be heard at all.

_You hold the mightiest weapon of all._

The boy had turned over on his stomach, desperately trying to get away. The girl tried to pull him away with her, but she too was being covered in darkness. All the while, the large, black monster loomed over them, getting closer and closer. The boy reached out his darkness-covered hand to the girl. She tried to take it, and just managed to grab his fingers in a tight grip.

_So don't forget:_

The two stared up at the monster, their faces almost entirely covered by the darkness.

_You are the ones… who will open the door._

* * *

the spiky haired young boy

and the red-eyed young girl

couldn't see anything anymore.

* * *

**Ah. Hello everyone. It's me, Frost.**

**Welcome to Kingdom Hearts of an Eastern Wonderland (version 2.0!).  
**

**To be honest, the first few chapters aren't going to be TOO much different from the original, since I'm really perfectly happy with what goes on, but I did revise and do a LOT of editing and there are a lot of key things changed to flow better and just be better for the story.  
**

**I'm going to keep the policy I had with the original; please, please, PLEASE let me know if I have any information wrong or seem to be writing a character wrong. I don't want to make anyone too OOC or, god forbid, overpowered or mary sue-ish. Now, there are of course villainous Touhou girls in this story, but since in Touhou canon there aren't really that many villains but rather girls with ambiguous morals, I will be taking some liberties, but even still I'm trying to make them as in character as possible. Please be patient with me!  
**

**But. Um. Yeah. Thank you for reading and your support. I will try my damn hardest not to just abandon this story with no warning. Please look forward for the plot to get going! uwu  
**


	2. A Heart as Red as a Ground Cherry

The sun shone bright.

The boy lying on the sand slowly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the light. He brought his torso up, looking at the vast ocean in front of him. Yawning, he slowly returned to lying on his back, but as he touched the sand again, a girl suddenly appeared looming over him. She was smiling. He yelped and shot up, resting on his knees. She laughed.

"Gimme a break, Kairi."

"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here."

The boy, Sora, put on a defiant face.

"No! This huge, black THING swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't—Ow!" Kairi had flicked his head.

"Are you still dreaming?"

"It wasn't a dream!" He said, looking down. "Or was it? I don't know." He looked at the waves. "…What was that place? …So bizarre. It was me, and there was…"

"Yeah, sure." Kairi said, walking towards the edge of the water. Sora watched her walk.

"Say, Kairi, what was your hometown like? You know, where you grew up." The question came from nowhere, and took Kairi by surprise, but she answered anyway.

"I've told you before. I don't remember."

"Nothing at all?"

Though Sora didn't see it, Kairi's mouth turned into the smallest of frowns.

"Nothing."

"You ever want to go back?"

"Well, I'm happy here."

"Really."

"But you know… I wouldn't mind going to see it."

Sora shifted his sitting position.

"I'd like to see it too." A determined expression covered his face. "Along with any other worlds out there! I want to see 'em all!"

Kairi turned to him with the same expression.

"So what're we waiting for?"

"Hey, aren't you guys forgetting about us?"

Kairi and Sora turned. A boy and a girl stood behind them, both carrying a rather large log.

"So. I guess we're the only ones working on the raft, huh, Marisa?"

The girl named Marisa smirked.

"Sure looks like it. Seems like we're the only ones who really want'ta go on an adventure, huh, Riku?" She laughed. "And aren't you two a little old to be playing in the sand?"

"We weren't-" Sora started to say, but he was interrupted by Marisa and Riku tossing the log at him, and toppled over trying to catch it. Riku laughed and walked over to Kairi.

"You call him a bum, but you're just as lazy as he is!"

"So you noticed." Kairi grinned. "Okay, fine. We'll finish it together." She clapped her hands together. "I know! Let's race for it!"

Riku plopped down to sit next to Sora. Marisa was wiping her dirty hands on the small white apron tied to her black dress.

"Huh?" asked Sora.

"What, are you kidding?" said Riku.

"What, afraid you'll lose to a girl, you boys?" Marisa laughed.

Kairi giggled.

"No way!" Riku scoffed. Sora nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, if you're suuuuuuure…" Marisa walked over to Kairi. "Ya ready? Go!"

Marisa quickly grabbed Kairi's hand and pulled her, making a quick head start against the boys. Sora and Riku quickly jumped up and sprinted after them. Marisa let go of Kairi's hand and kept the lead, with Sora and Riku neck-and-neck behind her, and Kairi beginning to lag behind, but not seeming to care. The sun was bright, the seagulls were crying, and the sound of the children's laughter filled the air. It was going to be a good day.

* * *

**Kingdom Hearts of an Eastern Wonderland**

* * *

The race was over. Marisa had won, of course. Everyone on Destiny Islands knew that when a competition involved Marisa, she was always the winner. Kairi stood near the door to the cove, talking to Sora. Riku had left to take a well-deserved break, and Marisa had gone to go find another lazy girl who was _supposed _to be helping build the raft as well.

"So, can you gather the rest of the supplies?" Kairi asked Sora. Sora was spacing out, thinking about the horrible loss he had just received. "Sora, are you listening to me?"

"Huh? Yeah, I heard you." He said, snapping back to attention.

"Okay, here's what you need to go find:" Kairi counted on her fingers. "Two logs, one cloth, and one rope. Bring everything back here, okay?"

"Sure thing!" Sora said, and ran off to find the items. The log thrown to him before was still sitting on the sand. He grabbed it and headed toward the wooden buildings built in the trees. He passed a few other inhabitants of the island, two boys and a girl. They were his friends, but something about seeing them made him think of something… He stopped.

"Hm." He scratched his head. He had that feeling, that feeling that he was supposed to remember something, but couldn't. He shrugged and went on his way. He found another log, and the rope. All that was left was the cloth. He climbed some ladders to a wooden walkway. Another ladder was at the end of it, with white zig-zag paper streamers and bells tied to it. He began to climb towards the small makeshift building on the top of the trees.

"Reimuuuuu! Everyone but you is working on the raft! Come on and help, you lazy ass!" Sora knew that foul-mouthed Marisa was up there, and when he reached the top of the ladder, she and another girl met him.

The small building on the treetops was known to the island children only as 'The Shrine". It was where Reimu, another one of Sora's good friends, spent her time when she wasn't doing anything else. She had a lot of pretty things stashed there; including various religious artifacts she said helped her with rituals, though no one knew what these rituals were or what they did. She also had a lot of useless junk, as Marisa liked to be a packrat and used the shrine as her personal attic, to Reimu's annoyance. Sora knew there had to be a cloth somewhere in there.

"Hey, guys." He said, grinning.

"Oh, if it isn't our hard worker bee!" Marisa said. "See, Reimu? Even lazy Sora is doing his share of work. Why don'cha get off your fat ass and help, too?"

But Reimu wasn't listening. She was staring at Sora, a look of surprise on her face. Sora stared back, feeling awkward.

"Um. We need some cloth for the raft, Reimu, and I was wondering…" Sora trailed off. Reimu nodded and stood up from the cushion she was sitting on. She turned and entered the shrine. A few moments later, she returned, carrying a large cloth.

"Here. I guess I'll be coming down with you, then, if it means Marisa will stop bugging me." She smiled. Sora grinned back. Marisa had a sly, cat-like smile on her face.

"Well, if you two lovebirds are finished~" She said, and hopped on the railing.

"Please fall off and break your leg." Reimu said in a monotone voice.

"W-we're not lovebirds!" Sora exclaimed. Marisa grinned.

"I'll be sure to tell that to Kairi." And she jumped off the railing, falling down to the ground. Just before she hit the ground, however, she did a somersault, landing safely- albeit a bit dirty- on the sand. She winked up at the two above her, and skipped off in the direction Riku was in. Reimu sighed.

"Jeez."

Sora looked at her curiously. Like the other island children, something about seeing Reimu made him think…

And that's when it hit him.

"Reimu! I dreamed about you earlier!"

Reimu stared at him. Sora instantly wished he had worded that differently.

"I mean, no, not like that, what I meant was-" Reimu silenced him with her hand.

" 'You are the ones who will open the door'." She said. "That's what you mean, right?"

Sora looked at her with surprise.

"So- So you had it too? It wasn't just me?"

Reimu nodded.

"I don't know what that dream was about… But it meant something. It was sending us a message—and it's my job to figure out what."

"Your… job?"

Reimu raised her eyebrow.

"My job, stupid. What am I of these islands?"

"Oh. Right." Sora scratched the back of his head. "You're our shrine maiden, aren't you."

Reimu's father was a priest on the mainland, and apparently in her family, it was a tradition for the children to be in charge of keeping order of something or something like that. Reimu said it was just a fancy way of saying that she had the right to beat someone up whenever she felt like it, and that was pretty accurate, actually.

"Heeeeeeey!" Reimu and Sora looked down. Marisa was back, Riku not far behind her. "Come oooooooon, you guys! Get to wooooooork!"

Reimu and Sora smiled.

"Coming!" Reimu called, and they both climbed down. When they reached the bottom, Reimu took the cloth from Sora. "I'll take this to Kairi. You take a break."

"Wait, what about the dream?"

"Please, leave it to me. I'll tell you if I figure anything out. After all, it could very well be nothing. Sometimes, a dream is just a dream." She smiled and walked towards the area where Kairi was. Sora looked after her a bit, then turned to see Riku walking across a wooden bridge to a small island with a few palm trees on it. Sora ran around a small shack, jumped on the roof of it, and ran to catch him. Riku was sitting on the trunk of a larger, bent-over tree with star-shaped fruit. He turned as Sora approached him.

"Did you get everything we need for the raft? I gave my stuff to Kairi."

Sora nodded. Riku smirked.

"Hey, Sora, how about a quick round? Grab your sword."

"Okay! You're on!" Sora said confidently.

"This one decides the champion!" Riku said, jumping up off of the trunk. He pulled out his wooden sword, as did Sora. "Ready or not!" And he lunged. Sora quickly skirted out of the way. Riku jumped high in the air and landed right behind Sora. He quickly slashed him down. As Sora stumbled to get up, Riku exclaimed, "Don't tell me you're giving up now!"

"Ha! As if!" Sora cried back, and quickly slashed back. The two boys repeated this play-fight for a while, eventually catching the interest of a passing by Marisa.

"Get 'im good! Go, go!" She cheered, waving her large black hat.

"Which one?" Asked Riku, blocking a hit from Sora.

"Whoever's winnin'!" Marisa called back, clapping and jumping.

"So that'll be me!" Sora exclaimed, managing to push Riku on his back. Unfortunately, this seemed to be what Riku was waiting for, as he quickly rolled backwards, then lunged quite fast towards Sora and hit him so hard that the younger boy fell off the edge of the small islet. As he resurfaced in the water, he cried out in frustration. "Man, now the score's 0 to 1!"

Marisa peered over the edge at him. "You know, ya might be able to win at this stuff if you ever took actual _lessons_."

Sora glared at her.

* * *

Sora had met up with Kairi and Reimu. He presented them the two logs and the rope. Kairi's face filled with glee.

"Thanks, Sora! I found something today, too. Here, it's yours." And she handed him a green bottle.

"Cool!" He said, looking at the sun through it. Reimu began to yawn, but tried to stifle it. Kairi had noticed.

"You two tired? Want to call it a day?"

Sora and Reimu looked at each other.

"Yeah, let's go home." He said.

"Okay. It is getting late. We'll finish up tomorrow." She smiled, and both Sora and Reimu nodded.

* * *

It was sunset. The five friends were on the small islet, sitting and leaning against the large, leaning tree trunk. Reimu had brought drinks, but no one seemed to want any but her. They stared at the sky and the setting sun. No one said a word, until-

"So, Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?" Sora broke the silence.

"Could be." Riku replied. "We'll never know by staying here."

"But how far could a raft take us?" Sora leaned over to look at him.

"Well, if I knew real magic, then I could make it take us to wherever we wanted in ten minutes, tops!" Marisa said, grinning.

"Well, while you figure out how to make magic real, we'll use the _normal _way, with the raft." Riku replied to her.

"Pfft. Normal is boring!" Marisa exclaimed. "I've told you, I'm definitely getting onto something with those mushrooms-"

"Those mushrooms are getting you on something, alright." Reimu deadpanned. Marisa crossed her arms with a huff.

"If the raft doesn't work out, we'll think of something else. And no, magic is not an option." Riku said, glancing at Marisa with a smile.

"I wish I could fly." Reimu said. "I could take all of us together over the water and beyond…"

"Oh, and you make fun of _me_ for wishin' I knew real magic? You hypocrite!"

Everyone laughed.

"So, suppose you get to another world." Kairi said. "What would you do there?"

"I'd like to see what kind of sake they have." Reimu said seriously. "If I have to, I'll lie about my age. But there's got to be a world out there with better sake than here."

"Reimu, didn't your dad say you can't have that stuff anymore? It's for grown-ups!"

Reimu turned to Kairi with a serious expression.

"You can't deny a girl her pleasures, Kairin."

"Hey, what's up with the extra 'n'?"

The two girls began to giggle. The other three rolled their eyes.

"Well, what about you guys, then? What would you want to do?" Reimu asked them. Riku's face turned thoughtful.

"Well, I haven't really thought about it. It's just… I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?"

Marisa nodded in agreement. "This place is nice and all, but I wanna see what else is out there! There's got to be more to life than playing on the beach all day, right?"

Riku nodded as well. "And suppose there are other worlds… Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So, we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

Sora turned over onto his back. "I don't know."

"Exactly. That's why we need to go out there and find out." Riku walked towards the edge of the islet. "Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff. So let's go."

"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Kairi asked quietly.

"Thanks to you." He turned to her. "If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of any of this."

"You're like, living proof there are other worlds out there!" exclaimed Marisa.

Riku nodded. "Kairi, thanks."

"You're welcome."

Four boys and girls stared into the purple sky, smiling. The fifth girl quietly sipped her tea, wondering if she was the only one who could sense a horrible storm coming.

* * *

Later, the five of them were walking along the wooden bridge. Marisa and Reimu had gone ahead to untie the boat, and Kairi was not far off from them. Sora and Riku were behind.

"Sora!" He turned, and caught a star-shaped fruit thrown to him by Riku. "You wanted one, didn't you?" He was pointing at him.

"A paopu fruit…"

"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined." Riku walked past Sora. "They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what." He lifted his hand with a laugh. "C'mon, I know you want to try it."

"What are you talking—" But Riku was laughing, and Sora, red-faced, threw the fruit into the water below him. Riku began to run, and Sora chased after him, eventually catching up to the walking girls.

* * *

Meanwhile, far away in another land, in a friendly-looking castle…

* * *

It was a bright, clear morning. The castle hallways were filled with the morning sunlight, and everyone was in a rather happy mood, though that was nothing new. A duck, wearing clothing that gave off a 'magical' look, walked cheerfully down the hall. He was humming the cheerful song that was normally heard around the castle town. He headed toward a pair of ridiculously large doors. He was about to open them, when-

"Donald! Master Donald!" The duck turned to see a girl running towards him. She was dressed in dark clothes, as opposed to the bright colors everyone else wore. A bright blue crystal on a necklace bounced as she ran towards the duck, and the mouse ears on her head were twitching, as was her tail, which was carrying a small basket with a tinier mouse inside. Her name was Nazrin, and she was the castle's resident _youkai_. She reached him, panting.

"Nazrin? What's wrong?" Donald asked in his hard-to-figure-out-what-he-was-saying voice.

"Huh? Oh! Nothing, nothing!" She laughed, but it was full of anger. "Nothing at all, except _I've lost it_! The thing the King wanted me to find- well, I _did_ find it - but it's gotten lost again, and this time I can't find it! Not even with my dowsing rods!" She stomped the ground. "If the King learns I lost it though I found it, he's going to be so mad! I'm the Royal Dowser. The best Royal Dowser in any time or place! This is my job! And I've failed…" Her ears and tail drooped with sadness.

"Now, Nazrin." Donald said kindly. "You know the King wouldn't get mad over something like that. I'm going to see him now- why don't you come with me and tell him? It'll make it a lot easier, trust me." He smiled at the mouse-girl, who sighed and nodded with a new, determined face.

"Yes! Right now, let's go!" She started walking, but quickly turned back, her face red. "The door's right here, the door's right here…" She muttered. Donald stifled a laugh and turned back to the huge doors. He cleared his throat.

"Ahem." He knocked two times, and a much, much smaller door opened in the middle of the large ones, big enough for both Donald and Nazrin to walk through. They walked down the throne room on the long red carpet. Donald called out, "Good morning, Your Majesty," bowing as he walked. Nazrin curtsied and hastened her steps to match Donald's. They neared the golden throne, which contrasted with the mainly white room.

"It's nice to see you this morn—" Donald began, but stopped as he and Nazrin realized there was no one sitting in the throne.

"What!" Donald exclaimed. Then, a head popped out from behind the throne, and a dog came out holding a green envelope in his mouth.

"Pluto. Come here, boy…" Nazrin lured the dog over, grabbed the letter, and handed it to Donald before starting to pet the dog. Donald looked the words over carefully.

Two blinks.

Donald ran out spastically, making a 'waaaugh' sound over and over again. Nazrin ran after him, trying to ask him what had happened.

She followed him into one of the castle gardens, where someone else was sleeping peacefully in the flowers. Donald ran up to him and started yelling.

"Wake up, Goofy, wake up! This is serious!" Goofy didn't wake, but let out a loud snore. Angry, Donald lifted his index finger, and a lightning bolt shot down from the sky onto the sleeping dog. Nazrin leapt back, frightened by the sudden magic.

Goofy rose slowly, rubbed his eyes, and looked around. He saw the two standing next to him. "Hey there, Donald. Miss Nazrin. G'morning."

"We've got a problem, Goofy! But don't tell anyone…"

Goofy blinked in surprise. "Queen Minnie?"

"Not even the queen."

"Uh, Master Donald…" Nazrin began, but Donald silenced her.

"Daisy?" Goofy asked.

"No, it's top secret!"

"Master-" But she was silenced again by a hand on her shoulder and a smile.

"G'morning, ladies." Goofy bowed as best he could while sitting down, and Donald turned to see a mouse and a duck in pink and purple dresses respectively. The mouse had a crown on her head, and her hand was the one on Nazrin's shoulder. Daisy put her hands on her hips, looking at Donald impatiently. He laughed nervously.

"I was trying to tell you…" Nazrin said, shrugging, the mouse in the basket on her tail mimicking her.

* * *

**boop  
**

**Should I limit author's comments to the end of the chapters, or should I put them before and after? Ah, whatever.  
**

**RandomNumbers, thank you for your comments! Trust me, I have a lot in store for this now, much more than just throwing Touhou girls into the script like before! And about Marisa- she was actually one of the things I was really unhappy with in the original version. Her role is no longer just a copy of Riku's, and- well, I can't say too much without spoiling things, can I? Kihihihi. She deserves much more than that and I will do my best to give that to her!**

**And to everyone, thank you for reading! To readers of the original, I'm sorry if the chapters seem the same as before, but trust me, there are many changes happening, definitely for the better! Thank you for being patient with me! uwu  
**


	3. Apparitions Stalk the Cave

The next day was, like it always was, sunny and warm. Sora got off his small boat and left it with the other children's. He and the others didn't live on the island that they spent all their time at; the name of their home was Destiny Island_s_, after all. This was just a smaller island just off the coast of a bigger one's. Although, Sora and the others suspected that Marisa, who was on bad terms with her father, had a secret home on their 'playground', where she stayed alone. Otherwise, however, the island itself wasn't actually a home to anyone.

Sora ran across the beach to the door of the cove. Upon entering, he found himself face-to-face with Marisa.

"Well, howdy, Sora!" She said cheerfully. "Took you long enough."

"Sorry. My mom made me this awesome breakfast…" Sora smiled upon remembering the feast his mother had laid out for him before he had left for the island.

"Yeah, sounds great." Marisa said, rolling her eyes. "Hey, help me, would ya?"

"With what?"

"Gotta find more supplies for the raft! Kairi assigned me mushroom duty." She grinned wide. "And you know how much I love me some good mushrooms! But it's such a pain gathering them all by myself, so why don't you help me with the load?" Sora thought for a bit, then shrugged and agreed. "Then it's settled!" Marisa clapped her hands. "Let's search here in the cove for a bit, and then I think there are some more mushrooms in the Secret Place." The Secret Place, as the children called it, was a cave on the main beach, just next to a waterfall.

"Sounds good to me." Sora said, and they both began running across the wooden bridge, making sure to jump over the plank that was old and deteriorating. After searching some bushes, and pushing a rock to find a small cave, Sora and Marisa had gathered two large hatfuls (as Marisa was using her large hat as a basket) of mushrooms. Marisa and Sora laid the mushrooms near the almost finished raft. Sora saw Kairi and Reimu talking near a tree, but decided to wait to call them until he and Marisa had gathered all the mushrooms.

"Come on!" Marisa called, and he followed her out the door, to the beach, past the waterfall, and to the cave entrance.

* * *

Sora and Marisa entered the Secret Place. It was dark, but since Marisa went in there all the time, all Sora had to do was hold her hand and follow her lead to the area of the cave that was lit by holes in the ceiling. He heard her chuckle as she led him in.

"Now, what would Kairi say if she saw you holding my hand~?"

"W-what? Sh-Shut up!"

Eventually, they reached the lit area. All over the cave walls, there were crude drawings done by the island children over the years. Sora gazed at all the memories, but Marisa was just searching the ground.

"Where're those damn mushrooms…?" She looked over roots, rocks, and next to the walls. Sora stopped looking at the drawings and drew his attention to something in the wall that shouldn't have been there. Of course, it had always been there, but that didn't mean it belonged.

It was a plain, brown door, with golden edges. Sora stared at it, then went up to it and ran his hand over it. It was completely smooth, with no scratches or nicks in it at all. There also wasn't anything like a handle, or anything to open it with. Marisa sensed that he wasn't helping her search, and looked up.

"Oh, the door. Yeah, it won't open. It never does." She stood and walked over to it and kicked it gently. "Sometimes when I come in here I try to get it to open, but nothing ever works." She shrugged. "I think Riku tries it a lot, too. I'll see him comin' outta here looking all bothered sometimes." She went back to searching for the mushrooms. "I sure would like to see what's behind it- Found them!" Her musings were interrupted by her own sudden cry echoing throughout the cave. She stood up, holding a bunch of large mushrooms in her apron. She grinned at Sora. "Success! Let's go!"

Sora smiled.

"Hey, I'll catch up with you."

"Sure thing." She shrugged, and ran off. Sora looked back at the brown door, and his gaze drifted to a small drawing next to it of two heads looking at each other. Sora knelt down and put his hand over the one on the right.

* * *

_Two small children were kneeling down in front of the stone wall. Both were etching something into it with large rocks. The girl, on the left, made a neat, white drawing of a likeness of the boy on the right. The boy was drawing a rather crude image in the likeness of the girl on the left. They looked at each other's drawings and grinned at each other._

* * *

Sora had grabbed a rock and began chipping away. It didn't take long, and when he was done, he admired his handiwork: the image of his own face now had an arm extending towards the picture of Kairi, with a star shape in its hand. He smiled, but he quickly stopped as he felt some presence behind him. He was suddenly aware that he was very cold. He turned around.

"Wh-Who's there?" He quickly stood up, staring at the corner where he felt the odd presence.

"I've come to see the door to this world." Came the deep-voiced reply.

"Huh?"

"This world has been connected."

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Sora was thoroughly confused. Who was this guy? What was he talking about?

"Tied to the darkness… soon to be completely eclipsed." With this, Sora was starting to feel even sicker all of a sudden, yet he wasn't sure why. He decided this voice- whoever it was- was not something he wanted to be near.

"Well, whoever you are, stop freaking me out like this. Huh?" Suddenly, he saw it. A brown-cloaked figure, standing in the corner he had been staring in. He had blinked, and the figure had appeared. "Wh-where did you come from?"

"You do not yet know what lies beyond the door." The figure said. Sora's eyes widened.

"What do you mean? You know what's behind it? You… are you from another world?" He asked.

"There is so very much to learn." The figure said, ignoring Sora's questions. "You understand so little." The figure had come closer.

"Oh, yeah? Well, you'll see." Sora said angrily. "I'm gonna get out and learn what's out there!"

"A meaningless effort." The figure said, simply. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing." Sora was about to reply, but at that moment, he heard it. A sound that could only be described as an ominous wind was coming from the brown door. Sora stared at it, mesmerized. He tore his eyes away to look back at the figure- but it was gone.

Sora felt very sick, like he was about to throw up. He got out of the cave as quickly as he could.

* * *

A short while later, he had made his way back to the raft, where Kairi, Marisa, and Reimu were standing, discussing things Sora really didn't care about. Kairi saw him and smiled.

"The raft's almost ready! All we have to do now is load it with food. Marisa says you've already gotten us some mushrooms. Thanks!" Sora smiled at her gratitude, but he still felt sick and disturbed by what had just happened. He wanted to say something, but what was he supposed to say? He was hearing voices and seeing things? He kept quiet.

Kairi looked around. "Hey, have you guys seen Riku?"

Reimu shook her head. Sora shrugged.

"I think he's over there." Marisa pointed over at the door to the beach.

"Sora, would you…?" Kairi began to ask.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Sora nodded, and ran to meet Riku. Eventually, he found him standing near the door, looking in the direction of the girls. He turned to Sora,

"Hey, Sora. Our raft still needs a name. Let's see… How about 'Highwind'? What would you call it?"

Sora thought for a moment.

"Um… How about… 'Palanquin'?" Sora asked.

"Hey, how 'bout… Let's do it!" Riku exclaimed.

"You guys at it again?" Sora and Riku turned to see the girls standing on the bridge, looking at them.

"What are we doin', naming the raft?" Marisa asked. "I wanna name it 'Mimi-chan'!"

"That's stupid." Reimu replied. "Why don't we call it 'Ruukoto'?"

Sora grinned. "Why don't you join the race? Whoever wins, gets to name the raft!"

The two girls nodded in agreement. Marisa smirked, sure she would win. After all, she had never lost a competition before.

"All right, I'll be the judge." Kairi said, walking with the other two towards the boys. "The usual rules apply: Take any route you want… First one to tag the star tree and make it back here wins!"

The four of them nodded, getting into starting positions. Marisa was telling Reimu about how she was going to grind her into the dust, while Reimu was completely ignoring her. Sora spoke to Riku.

"If I win, I'm captain! And if you win…"

"I get to share the paopu with Kairi." Riku cut him off.

"Huh?"

"Deal? The winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi. This only counts for you and me, though. I don't think Marisa or Reimu would wanna do it."

Sora's face went bright red. "Wha… Wait a minute…"

"Okay. On my count:" Kairi called, not hearing their conversation. "3… 2… 1… Go!"

The four of them took off. Marisa took the lead, of course, but in a burst of speed, Riku overtook her. Sora followed close behind them, while Reimu was jogging leisurely behind him. They jumped over the gaps in the bridge, but unfortunately for Marisa, Riku nudged her onto the decaying plank, and she fell down into the water.

"_YOU SON OF A_-" She yelled, but Riku just laughed and kept running. Sora had caught up to Riku now. The two of them jumped down a ledge, and ran across the sand. Riku and Sora looked back to see if the girls had caught up, but Reimu was nowhere to be seen, and Marisa was far behind, grumbling as she sprinted to catch up. Riku and Sora began to run up a hill to the star-tree, and both gasped as they saw Reimu suddenly in front of them; she had taken the time to climb up a lookout tower and used a zip-line to soar right over their heads. She tapped the tree and it glowed, turned to the boys, and smiled innocently. She began jumping on the treetops as if she were floating on air.

Both Riku and Sora touched the tree at the same time, and began hopping on the trees after Reimu. Looking down at the beach, Sora saw Marisa charging up the hill.

'Jeez, she sure can run.' He thought, but quickly panicked as he realized Riku was a tree ahead of him. The three of them ran across the trees, jumped down, jumped up, and soon reached the bridge again. Sora heard Marisa right behind him, and did a massive sprint. Unfortunately, Riku had the same idea; he passed right by Reimu and reached Kairi first. Reimu came next, followed by Sora, and finally Marisa. She was red faced and glaring at Riku, who shrugged with a smirk. The four of them were panting heavily, and Sora bent over in grief.

"Man, now the score's 0 to 2!" He cried. The others laughed.

"All right, we're naming the raft Highwind." Riku said with a look of triumph on his face. Sora glared at him as well.

* * *

When the race was finished, and the girls had gone back to the raft, Sora went up to Riku.

"Hey…" He started.

"What's that?" Riku turned to him. He saw Sora's face, and smiled mischievously. "Oh, the paopu thing? It was just a joke." He began to laugh, "You should have seen your face."

Sora glared once again.

He left to go back to the girls and the raft. Kairi told him to find a seagull egg, coconuts, fish, and drinking water. After a little more time running around the island, he met up with Reimu entering the cove.

"Good racing." She said.

"Yeah, right. I lost…" He replied, kicking the ground. Reimu laughed.

"At least you didn't finish last. Marisa's so angry that Riku pushed her- I think she's seriously thinking of getting him back. With interest."

Sora grinned.

"Glad I didn't win, then." The two of them laughed together. Sora stretched his arms. "Well, I gotta get this stuff to Kairi. Good thing I collected the mushrooms earlier, or I'd be stuck doing it with moody Maris-" He stopped mid-sentence. Of course, Reimu would understand! She definitely wouldn't think he was crazy or something if he told her!

"What's up?" Reimu asked.

"Reimu. Something really weird happened while I was in the Secret Place."

"Hm? Like, what?"

"Well…"

* * *

When he had finished telling her what happened, Reimu had crossed her arms. She was staring at him intently.

"And you have no idea who- or what- that guy was?"

"Not a clue. Why was he making fun of me? What did he mean, 'this world is connected'? Could he really be from another world?"

Reimu shook her head.

"I don't know. But…" She looked at the horizon, at the calm, blue sea. "…The sky is clear… But that's a farce. A storm is coming."

"What?" Sora asked, confused. Reimu looked at him, her face grave.

"Sora. Last night, I was communi- I mean, doing my shrine maiden duties, and during that time, I tried to figure out what was up with our dreams."

"Yeah? And? Did you find any answers?" Sora looked hopeful, but his face faded away when he saw Reimu's grim look.

"All I could see… was a dark cloud. And not cloud_s_, mind you. This was just one cloud. It was blackish-purple, and… and it scared me. It really did. I think…" She looked back at the horizon. "Something… is going to happen. Soon. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. But Sora, no matter when or what happens…" And she looked at him with the most serious expression he had ever seen her make. "Promise… you won't leave any of us alone. Riku, Marisa, Kairi; they haven't had any weird things happening to them, I don't think. It's just you and me, and we gotta protect them. Okay?"

Sora stared into her eyes. They had always been a bright red, but now, they were brighter than he had ever seen them before. Slowly, he nodded.

"I hate to ruin this nice day." She sighed. "Let's… Why don't we go back and get that stuff to Kairi? If anything bad happens, we'll need the raft to be okay, right?"

Sora nodded with a small smile. He was still worried about what Reimu had said, but she was right; the raft was a priority. The two of them went in the direction Kairi and the raft was in, and eventually caught up with her. She was messing with something in her hands.

"What's that?" Sora asked, leaning in for a closer look.

"This? I'm making a necklace of thalassa shells. In the old days, sailors always wore thalassa shells. They were supposed to ensure a safe voyage." She looked up at the two of them, and smiled. "You guys have the supplies?"

"Yep." Sora said, beaming. Reimu handed them to her.

"Thanks, you guys! I found something today, too. Here, Reimu. Sora got the last one." She held out a green bottle, which was like Sora's, only bigger. Reimu smiled.

"Thanks, Kairi."

"Are you guys tired? Want to call it a day?"

The two of them nodded. Kairi beamed.

"Okay, tomorrow's the big day. We should rest up!"

* * *

Once again, it was sunset. However, only three of the five friends were sitting on the dock. Kairi, Sora, and Reimu sat with their legs over the edge of the dock. They gazed at the scene before them.

"Hey, where're Riku and Marisa?" Sora asked.

"They went home together. I think they were gonna do some last minute training or something, before we leave." Reimu replied. Kairi was silent, then-

"You know, Riku… he's changed. None of you guys notice it…"

"Eh? What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"Well…"

"You okay?" Sora turned to her. Kairi was silent a bit more, then looked eagerly at the two on either side of her.

"Sora, Reimu, let's get Marisa, take the raft and go— just the four of us!"

"Huh?" Sora said, confused.

"Kairi, what do you-" Reimu started, but Kairi interrupted her with a giggle.

"Just kidding."

Sora and Reimu both looked at her, bemused expressions on their faces.

"What's gotten into you? _You're_ the one who's changed, Kairi." Sora said, laughing.

"Maybe…" Kairi said, sounding a bit sad. Reimu put her hand on her shoulder, and Kairi smiled at her. "You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready." She beamed at the two of them. "No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here. Right?" She turned to Sora, then Reimu.

"Yeah, of course!" Sora replied.

"You're always safe here, Kairin." Reimu said softly.

"That's good."

More silence and staring at the sunset.

"Guys... Don't ever change."

"Huh?" Sora said, but Kairi rose. She stood between the sitting Sora and Reimu, a soft smile on her face.

"I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."

* * *

_Donald,_

_Sorry to rush off without sayin' goodbye, but there's big trouble brewin'._

_Not sure why, but the stars have been blinkin' out, one by one. And that means disaster can't be far behind. I hate to leave you all but I've gotta go check into it._

_There's someone with a "key"—the key to our survival._

_So I need you and Goofy to find him, and stick with him. Got it?_

_We need that key or we're doomed! So go to Traverse Town and find Leon. He'll point you in the right direction._

_P.S._

_Would ya apologize to Minnie for me? _

_P.P.S._

_Tell Nazrin I found that pagoda I told her to find, next to my throne. She probably left it there for me, and if you know her memory, she's probably thinkin' she's lost it again._

_Thanks, pal._

_Mickey_

* * *

Donald, Goofy, Queen Minnie, Daisy, and Nazrin were in the castle library, reading the letter Donald and Nazrin had found earlier.

"Oh, dear! What could this mean?" Daisy asked aloud, her voice worried.

"It means we'll just have to trust the king." Queen Minnie said in her calm voice. Nazrin wasn't listening to the conversation at all, as she was busy pacing back and forth behind Minnie and Daisy, hitting herself on the head for her forgetfulness.

"I'm such an idiot…"

"Gawrsh, I sure hope he's all right." Goofy stated, bringing his hand to his mouth.

"Your Highness," said Donald with a salute, "Don't worry. We'll find the king and this 'key'."

"Thank you, both of you."

"Daisy, can you take care of—" Donald started, but Daisy cut him off.

"Of course. You be careful, now, both of you." She turned to Nazrin. "Nazrin? Anything you'd like to say before they leave?"

Nazrin looked up, a glint in her eyes.

"Make sure you bring back lots of treasure!"

The others laughed, but it wasn't a hearty one like the laughter that was usually heard around the castle. It stopped rather abruptly. Minnie gasped, remembering something.

"Oh, and to chronicle your travels, he will accompany you." She raised her hand to a desk next to them. Donald blinked and leaned in for a better look. A small cricket was hopping up and down on the corner of the desk.

"Over here!" He shouted. "Cricket's the name. Jiminy Cricket, at your service." He made a little bow.

"We hope for your safe return." Queen Minnie said. "Please help the king."

Donald saluted. He looked from the queen, to Daisy, to Nazrin, and finally to Goofy, all standing before him, wishing him their best. Goofy gave him a salute.

"You're coming too!" Donald shouted angrily, grabbed Goofy's arm, and dragged him off.

* * *

"Gawrsh, Jiminy, your world disappeared, too?" Goofy asked, following Donald down the dark stairway.

"It was terrible. We were scattered." Jiminy replied, sitting on Goofy's knight helmet. "And as far as I can see, I'm the only one who made it to this castle."

"Goofy?" Donald asked, looking back at him.

"Oh, right… I gotcha. While we're in other worlds, we can't let on where we're from. We gotta protect the world border."

" 'Order'." Donald corrected him.

"Right. World order." Goofy laughed. Donald sighed.

The three of them reached the end of a long, dark hallway, where a crown-shaped door was.

"I guess we'll need new duds when we get there." Goofy thought aloud.

* * *

They were now in a large room with gears and machinery everywhere. They walked down some stairs and found themselves face-to-face with a large, red and yellow rocket ship. Donald walked over to a yellow pipe. He yelled into it.

"Hello up there? Donald Duck to launch crew! Anytime you're ready."

The pipe extended into a small control platform, where two tiny chipmunks with work gloves and aprons listened to the command. One of the chipmunks made a salute, and the other one scurried to pull a lever. Instantly, a large, robotic hand picked up Goofy and Donald by their bottoms, and dropped them into the ship. Unseen by anyone, the dog Pluto had also jumped in. A large mouse head-shaped gate opened. Queen Minnie, Daisy, and Nazrin walked under the control platform, looking up at them. Donald looked down and Daisy and gave her a thumbs up and a wink.

The engines roared into life, fire erupting from them. Donald pointed at the open gate and yelled,

"Blast off!"

Suddenly, a large red arrow appeared in the middle of the gate, and the ground beneath the ship opened, making the ship drop through it. Donald and Goofy yelled with surprise. Eventually, they dropped right out of their world, speeding off into the starry sky of space.

* * *

Sora lay on his bed, his legs crossed, his arms resting behind his head. A single light next to him was on, but not bright enough to light the whole room. The large window right next to his bed showed a dark sky. He looked up at a hanging boat on his ceiling, which had two small figurines in it.

"_I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great._"

He looked back out the window, and gasped as he saw lighting flash in the distance.

"A storm?" He asked himself. Suddenly, he remembered his conversation with Reimu earlier that day. He got up quickly. "Oh no, the raft!"

A while later, Sora's mother's voice could be heard from another part of the house.

"Sora, dinner's ready. Come on down." No response. "Sora?"

Sora was not in his room, and his window was wide open.

* * *

**Now hold on, Donald. I think Goofy might be onto something with that "border" talk...**

**Hello everyone! It's been such a long time since we last saw each other, hasn't it?  
**

**Hehehe. Sorry these just keep comin' outta the oven like hotcakes! I believe the next two chapters will come very soon as well, and then it'll be a while as after that the story is going in a COMPLETELY different direction from the first time! As in, new material I will need to write instead of meticulously editing and changing already existing files on my computer! Very exciting. Please look forward to it.  
**

**Next chapter also includes BGM! Also exciting! Rev up those youtubes and get in the mood!  
**

**As always, thank you for reading! It won't be long now until lots of exciting things happen! uwu  
**


	4. Lunate Boy

[BGM: Night of Fate]

The sky was pitch black, covered in ominous dark purple and green clouds, occasionally flashing with lightning. Sora gulped as he maneuvered the small boat he was in through the large waves. He looked up at the island, and gasped as he saw a huge, glowing, purple orb floating just above it.

"What… what is that?" He yelled out loud to himself, horrified. He quickly docked the boat and hopped onto the boardwalk. He looked around, and saw three other small boats in the water. "Riku, and Marisa… And Kairi's!" He turned toward the beach, and widened his eyes as he saw one- no, two! Two of the dark, shadow creatures from his and Reimu's dream. Their glowing, yellow eyes darted around, and their gazes came to rest on Sora. They started to move towards him slowly. Sora stood, frozen. How? How could these… these THINGS be here? That had been just a dream, Reimu had said so! No, she had said it _might _have been just a dream. Well, Sora decided, it most definitely had been _not_, as these things being here was proof of that. He pulled out his wooden sword, and dropped into his normal fighting stance. He rushed towards the creatures and swatted… but the sword just bounced off, the creatures not phased in the slightest, as if they hadn't even been hit at all.

"That's not going to work!"

Sora looked up. What was Reimu doing there, standing on the railing of the walkway above him? Hadn't she gone home with him and Kairi earlier that evening?

"Reimu? What are you-" But she silenced him by throwing something small and white right past his ear. He turned and saw a small, rectangular piece of paper sticking out of the head of a creature that had been about to attack him. Reimu jumped down and landed next to him.

"We need to move. That seal won't last for more than a few seconds—_move_!" She grabbed his arm and ran, as, sure enough, the paper had disappeared with a flash and the then-frozen creature began to move again. They both ran, avoiding the creatures as they did so.

"Reimu!" Sora yelled, pulling his arm away but still running behind her. "Tell me—what's going on? How did you _do _that? And how did you get here? I only saw three other boats!" Reimu looked back at him.

"I'm just as surprised as you are that those amulets actually work. And I had my dad drop me off here a little bit after I had gotten home. I've been here. I saw—I watched it happen."

"Watched _what _happen?"

"The cloud. The cloud from my vision, the one I told you about? It appeared just as the sun had fully set, after you all had left. Then, it grew and grew into… into this. Then, these things from our dream showed up. I tried hitting them with TONS of stuff, like swords, staffs, Selphie's jump rope that she lent me—none of them work. But for some reason, those little amulets I have with seals written on them _do_ work, but only temporarily. And if there are three other boats here, then that means the others came here and I never saw them—" She stopped suddenly. "Sora! If they're here— they don't know what these things are! They could seriously be hurt!"

Sora nodded. "We gotta find them!"

They ran around the island some more, an unusually hard task for some reason; perhaps it was the dark, or perhaps someone –or some_thing_— simply wanted to stall them. Eventually, Sora noticed something on the small islet where the Paopu Tree was: two figures, one with a rather large hat. He yelled and pointed for Reimu, who nodded. They ran across the bridge to the islet and found Riku standing with his back to them, looking down at Marisa, who was sitting down and seemed to be unconscious, the side of her face bleeding.

"Riku! What's wrong with her? Where's Kairi? Have you seen her? This place isn't safe!" Sora asked. Riku was silent a moment, then said softly:

"The door has opened..."

"What?" Reimu asked, sharply.

"The door has opened, you guys!" He said, turning towards them. "Now we can go to the outside world!"

"What are you talking about?" Sora said, angrily. "We've gotta find Kairi! And Marisa needs help, just look at her!"

"She's fine! Kairi's coming with us!" Riku replied. Reimu tensed. She saw something, something not right at all, within Riku's eyes.

"Once we step through, we might not be able to come back." He raised his head to the orb of darkness above them. "We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back!" He looked down at Marisa. "Really, she's okay. She…"

He trailed off as Marisa slowly opened her eyes and looked around at them.

"Ah. Thought I heard you guys. Heh! Sorry Riku, did that big rock hit me?" She slowly got up, using Riku as support. "Ugh… You know, you ought'ta watch where you're runnin'. I wouldn't of had to push you outta the way then." She wiped her face and stared at the blood on her hand. "Eh. I'm okay." She casually wiped it on her apron, leaving a smear. "So!" She looked at the other three calmly despite the urgency of the situation. "Uh… what's goin' on? When did the storm get so bad? And hell, when did you two get here?"

"Marisa, we need to get out of here now!" Sora replied. "Come on, Riku! We gotta get Kairi and leave! Haven't you seen the monsters?"

"Eh? Monsters? What mon-" Marisa began, but Riku cut her off.

"Don't you guys see? This storm is here for a reason. I don't know anything about monsters, but this could be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us!"

"Riku!" Reimu said angrily. "You are _way_ out of it. Do you even hear what you're saying?"

Marisa nodded. "Uh, still not sure what's goin' on, but you're kinda weirding me out, buddy."

Riku just shook his head, their words having no effect on him.

"_I'm_ not afraid of the darkness!"

Riku slowly raised his hand to the two of them. Marisa stumbled and gripped his shoulder tightly, looking at Sora and Reimu with an absolutely bewildered expression.

"Riku…" Sora said softly, but his voice turned into one of panic as he and Reimu noticed the large pool of darkness wrapping itself around Riku and Marisa's legs. It slowly crept up their bodies, covering their torsos and arms as well. Sora and Reimu both rushed forward, but were stopped by the same pools of darkness beginning to engulf them as well. Sora and Reimu tried to reach out to the other two; Riku, who stood perfectly still, allowing the darkness to cover him, and Marisa, who was unsuccessfully trying to wipe the darkness off of her, looking wildly between Riku and the others. As it became apparent that they weren't going to be able to grab Riku's hand, Sora and Reimu became desperate, trying to move towards their friends- but it was too late. They couldn't reach the others, and the four of them were consumed by the pitch-blackness.

Suddenly, a bright, white light shone through the darkness. Sora and Reimu found themselves on the islet, unharmed, and the dark pools gone. However, both Riku and Marisa had vanished as well. The two of them looked around in confusion, but quickly stopped as, they stared in awe at the new things that had appeared in their hands.

For Sora, his wooden sword had disappeared. In its place was perhaps the oddest thing he had ever seen- A gigantic, silver key, with a yellow and blue handle. A small chain hung from the bottom, with the mouse head from Sora's dream hanging on the end. He looked over at Reimu.

For her, in one hand, the small paper seals she had been using to keep the creatures at bay had been replaced with larger, paper cards, with small pictures and writing on them. In the other hand, which had not been holding anything, a long black rod had appeared, with two long, white zigzag strips of paper attached to it. The two of them looked at each other, completely confused. Then, they lifted their heads as they both heard a familiar voice.

_Let this Keyblade and these holy tools be used for the protection of all worlds…_

The voice faded. Sora was about to say something, when the shadow creatures rose from the ground in front of them. Sora was ready to run again, but Reimu held out her hand.

"I wanna try something." And she rushed towards the creatures, raising her new _gohei_. The cards in her other hand disappeared with a flash of light. Sora reached out to stop her- but instead widened his eyes as he saw her actually land a hit on a creature. _Their new weapons could hurt the monsters. _He slashed with his new sword- no, "Keyblade". It too was able to hurt the creatures, and soon they were dispatched. Sora and Reimu looked at each other and nodded. They ran back over the bridge, and back onto the beach, destroying the monsters left and right. Reimu pointed over to where the Secret Place was- there was a white door there, which hadn't been there before they had gone to the islet. They rushed over to it, and it opened by itself, allowing them in.

They both haphazardly ran through the passage, feeling their way around in the darkness. Eventually, they reached the dimly lit cave.

"Kairi!" Sora shouted.

Kairi was standing there, staring at the brown door. She slowly turned to them. Her face looked pained and she seemed to be shaking.

"Ah… You… you guys…" She staggered towards them, lifting her arm. Then, from behind her, the door opened, and darkness and wind spilled out of it. Sora and Reimu braced themselves, shielding their faces with their arms. Kairi fell forward and Sora rushed to catch her- but the moment he touched her, she literally _faded away_. Sora stared ahead and Reimu stared at him, both in shock, but then, both of them were swept away by the powerful wind.

They landed, face first, on a bright area of sand. The two of them looked up and gasped as they saw that they were on a floating island, with debris flying around everywhere. Looking down, they saw that there was nothing. Simply nothing else was there. Reimu cried out as she turned and saw the large orb only feet away from them- or perhaps she was yelling at the large, familiar, black monster with a heart-shaped hole in its chest?

In a flash of light, the Keyblade appeared in response to Sora's wishing of it. He made a deep breath and stopped his shaking.

"I-It's gotta be just another dream." He said aloud, not looking away from the monster. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the sparkling of Reimu summoning her _gohei_. The two of them rushed forwards. They applied the same tactics they had used in their dream battle, both of them attacking the monster's separate hands. The monster used the exact same attack pattern as before, which made the battle a little easier for the two of them… Until it brought its hand down and a large orb began to appear in it. It brought its hand up high, and the orb disappeared in a flash. Sora and Reimu thought nothing of it, until even smaller orbs began falling from the sky, slowly and deliberately, aiming for the two of them. Reimu successfully sidestepped them all, though Sora was much clumsier and unlucky. He cried out in pain as he was hit by a few.

"Sora!" Reimu shouted. Sora shook himself and quickly went back to hitting the monster.

"I'm fine!" He yelled.

Reimu glared at the monster. "I'm tired of this. This ends now!" And she de-summoned her weapon.

"Huh? What are you doing?" Sora yelled, continuously hitting the monster's hand.

"Well, I got something besides the _gohei_, didn't I?" She replied, and held out her hand. In a mass of red and white sparkles, one of her new cards appeared. She looked at the writing on it. "I don't know what this will do, but I sure hope it works!" She raised the card as high as she could. "Sora, move!" He did, running behind her. "Um…「Homing Amulet」!"

The card glowed brighter and brighter, then suddenly split into two, growing into two red and white orbs that began floating around her. Then, from the two orbs, many pieces of paper—no, amulets— began firing out in the direction that Reimu was facing, moving directly, as if they had minds of their own, towards the monster. They hit directly into the monster's face, and Reimu laughed with glee at how much damage they seemed to be doing to it. She tried moving around, and true to its name the amulets kept going straight to the monster no matter what direction she was facing. Sora ran up to the monsters hands and once again whacked away at them. Both of them could see the monster was nearing its end; all it needed was just a few

more

hits

and…

"Sora! It's up to you!" Reimu cried, calling off her amulets. Sora leapt high into the air and hit the monster's head as hard as he could, and as he did, he knew in his gut that that was the final blow. He fell to the ground and quickly ran back to Reimu. They watched as the monster, defeated, froze up. But there was no time for any celebratory looks at each other, as slowly, it rose into the air, and was sucked in by the large orb of darkness. Sora and Reimu also began to rise, but Sora grabbed a large log immersed in the ground, and Reimu held tightly onto his ankles. The orb fell closer and closer, sucking the two of them in with more force. Unfortunately, it was too much for Sora's hand to take. He let go, and he and Reimu were pulled into the orb. And then? Darkness.

* * *

Donald and Goofy, now in less noticeable attire, walked along an empty street. Goofy was staring, open-mouthed, at the sky. Donald turned back to berate him for being slow, but his eyes followed Goofy's finger which pointed up.

"Look, a star's goin' out!" Goofy cried.

Sure enough, a bright star suddenly flashed even brighter, and was gone. Donald looked at Goofy with a worried expression.

"Come on. Let's hurry." Goofy nodded, and he, Donald, and Pluto walked toward some stairs. They were in a dark, yet brightly lit town, with neon signs and lights of all colors everywhere. Nearby, a sign with flashing lights hung from a post, saying the words 'TRAVERSE TOWN', with the letters in the shapes of arrows.

Donald had his arms crossed, an annoyed expression on his face. "Where's that key…" he said aloud.

"Hey, ya know, maybe we ought to go find Leon." Goofy replied to him. The two of them turned right at a shop, but Pluto kept going straight, his nose glued to the ground. Goofy watched him walk away. "Uh, Donald. Ya know, I betcha that…"

"Aw, what do you know, you big palooka?" Donald interrupted him, and kept walking. Goofy looked after Pluto.

"What do I know?" He asked himself. "Hmm… Come on, Pluto." He called after the dog, and followed Donald. However, Pluto himself wasn't listening. He was hot on the trail of something, something he knew was very, very important. He didn't know why it was important- after all, what does a dog care about problems that don't concern him? - But the smell of this new discovery was one he knew he ought to figure out. He followed the smell down an alley, and eventually around some barrels and crates, where he found the source of the smell.

* * *

Sora awoke to find himself being licked on the cheek. Dazed, he looked from left to right, eventually seeing the dog that was sitting right in front of him.

"What a dream…" He said, quietly. He began to doze off again, but the dog obviously wasn't going to have that. It pounced on him, waking him up fully. "This isn't a dream!" Sora cried. He looked around and stood up. "Where am I?" He turned and fully let his eyes take in his surroundings. "Oh, boy." He gazed at the unfamiliar buildings, lights, and signs. He turned to the dog, and put his hands on his knees, leaning over. "Do you know where we are?" He asked. The dog barked, turned, and ran away. "Hey…" Sora called after it. He looked around. "…No sign of Reimu…" He frowned. "Better follow that dog. It's the only thing I can do…" And he took off, running.

* * *

Rinnosuke Morichika was an honest, hardworking man. He was a little cold and distant with others, and sometimes a bit clueless in knowing how some things worked, but he was well-known throughout Traverse Town as a man you could trust with just about anything. He owned a shop that sold necessities and things from other worlds that showed up in town. Together with three brothers whose world had _not _been destroyed, but rather they had somehow been torn from it, he worked to make everyone's already stressed lives a little easier. Though he didn't really talk to others, he knew everyone in Traverse Town by name, so he was pleasantly surprised when he found a young girl he had never seen before passed out on the ground in an alley he was walking through.

"Hey. Young miss. Er…" He gently shook her shoulder. "Excuse me, are you alright? Can you hear me?"

The girl stirred. With a sigh of relief, he moved the girl so she was sitting upright against a wall. He kept tapping her on the same shoulder. "Please, miss. Are you hurt? If you can hear me, please nod your head."

Slowly, Reimu opened her eyes and nodded slightly. She blinked rapidly, lifting her head to stare at the person in front of her with the golden eyes. The eyes looked a lot like…

"Mar…is….a?" She asked, confused. She blinked, shook her head very fast, rubbed her eyes, and then looked at the person again. "Oh, no. You're just a man." A beat. "H-huh?!"

Rinnosuke laughed. "That's normally how people react when coming here the first time. …Not like there's ever a second time." He laughed again at his joke. Reimu stared at him. Instead of slowly trying to figure out what was going on, she decided to be brief with this odd, laughing man.

"You. Who are you? Where am I? How did I get here? _When_ did I get here? Where're my islands? Where's Sora? And what's so funny?"

Rinnosuke stopped laughing at this onslaught of questions. This girl wasn't fooling around; she looked like she could actually _hurt _him.

"Ah. Well. My name is Rinnosuke Morichika, and I own a shop here in town. This place is called 'Traverse Town'. It's a place where the lucky people go when their worlds are destroyed. We're not too sure on _how_ people get here, they just _do_. I don't know. I'm afraid your…islands? Your islands have been consumed by darkness, along with the rest of your world. I'm afraid I don't know where your 'Sora' is."

Reimu stared at him, trying to process this information.

"My… my world… has been…?" Rinnosuke nodded with an expression of pity.

"I'm terribly sorry, young miss. To happen to one as young as you… I hope I haven't just rushed into it. Normally, it takes a little time for the realization to set-" But he was silenced by an angry looking Reimu, holding her _gohei_ right at his face. She had stood up, and, even though she was considerably shorter than he was, towered over him.

"You're lying. Worlds don't just… just disappear. Now, where am I? And what has happened to my friends and family? Answer me now, 'Rinnosuke Morichika'. If you don't, I swear you'll have a whole lot of divine punishment coming your way!"

Rinnosuke wouldn't lie to himself. Right now, he was absolutely terrified of this angry girl in red and white with her odd little rod with paper streamers.

"Please, young miss! I'm not lying! And don't you think that such threats are rather unnecessary…?"

Reimu stared at him, and then de-summoned her _gohei_. This man, however odd, was telling the truth. She sighed.

"…Sorry, Mr. Morichika. I… this is all just…" She put her hand to her forehead, and sat back down. "This… can't be happening."

Rinnosuke once again looked at the poor girl with pity.

"I'd love to tell you this is all a hoax… but, it's real. This entire town is filled with people like you, the people who were lucky enough to escape their worlds' destructions. I'd say more, but I always end up making people cry about it, so…" Reimu could tell he was feeling awkward. She smiled, but she knew that it was obvious to the man that it was fake.

"I…" Her fake smile was short-lived. She stared at her shoes. "…It…It wasn't a dream, then. Sora and I…That huge monster… Riku and Marisa… Kairi…" She breathed heavily. "That weird 'Keyblade' thing… The cards…" She held out her hand, and with a flash, three of the odd cards appeared. They each had different pictures and writing on them. Rinnosuke stared at them, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. She willed the cards away, and instead hugged her knees. "But now, everyone's gone… I… I…" She buried her head in her knees, and was silent. Rinnosuke was at a loss as to what to do, unsure whether she was crying or not.

"Oh no, it's alright…" He reached out to awkwardly pat her on the back. She didn't respond for a moment, but then looked up, her face thankfully void of any tears.

"Reimu."

"Ah?"

"My name is Reimu." She stood, and Rinnosuke did as well. Rinnosuke smiled. It was a lot easier to deal with new refugees who weren't blubbering messes.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Miss Reimu." He held out his hand. Reimu shook it. "Please, don't despair. I'm sure if you look around, maybe you'll find something or someone from your world. Sometimes that happens."

Reimu nodded, and slowly smiled. "Who said I was despairing? Of course all my friends are here too. They… have to be. I mean, we were _sort of_ together when… Well…"

Rinnosuke nodded. "It's a possibility." His smile faded a little. "But- and I'll just go out and say it, so please forgive me- you mustn't get your hopes up _too_ high. I've seen many people go out searching for friends and or family, and they come back completely dejected. I wouldn't want that to happen to you." His expression was an odd mixture of sadness and confidence. "But, it will give you something to do, right?"

Reimu nodded slowly. "I understand. If worst comes to worst… I'll just have to make new friends, won't I?" She laughed, but it was forced, of course. She looked around. "Well, Mr. Morichika, do you know where I should start looking?"

* * *

Sora walked out of the alley. He stared at the buildings and lights all around him.

"This is totally weird…" He said to himself. Then, the realization hit him. "I'm in another world!" He looked around excitedly. Behind him, there was a building with a large sign saying "ACCESSORY SHOP". He went in, curious. A lone man was standing behind the green counter. He turned as he heard the door open.

"Hey there, how can I help…" His large smile quickly disappeared into an annoyed look. "Aw, it's only a kid."

"I'm not a kid!" Sora said, angrily. "And the name's Sora!"

"Okay, okay, simmer down." The man smirked. "So why the long face, Sora? You lost or somethin'?"

"No!" Sora stopped, and his expression turned sheepish. "Well, maybe. Where are we?"

"Huh?"

* * *

"Traverse Town…" Sora said. The man had just finished explaining everything to him. "So, gramps, is this really another world?"

"Don't call me 'gramps'! The name's Cid!" Cid shouted, angrily. He sighed. "Anyway… Not sure what you're talkin' about, but this sure ain't your island."

"Hmm… Guess I'd better start looking for Reimu and the others."

"Well, good luck with whatever you're doin'." Cid smiled. "If you ever run into trouble, come to me. I'll look out for you."

"Thanks, gr-Cid!" Sora smiled, and ran out of the store. He ran around a little bit, taking in the sights and talking to people who had also lost their worlds. Eventually, he climbed some stairs and found himself in front of a large door with the sign "SECOND DISTRICT" next to it. Shrugging, he let himself in.

As soon as he entered the district, he was met with a loud scream. Alarmed, Sora looked around frantically, and saw a man running towards him. The man tripped and fell over, and a bright light erupted from his chest. Something bright and sparkly floated out from it, and went towards a dark sphere, which appeared the moment the thing had left the man's chest. With a sickening lurch in his stomach, Sora realized that the bright and sparkly thing was the man's_ heart_. As it reached the sphere, it joined with it, and the sphere morphed into a humanoid figure with a helmet and glowing yellow orbs for eyes. Both the man's body and the figure disappeared. Sora ran out to where the man had been. Instantly, he was surrounded by…

"It's those creatures from the island!" He shouted aloud, and he summoned the Keyblade. He suddenly remembered that Reimu wasn't here with him. How was he going to fight without her help?

As it turned out, he fought pretty well, actually. As he finished the last monster off, he actually looked around eagerly to see the next one. He wanted to punish those awful things that took away his island and his friends. However, he saw no more things. Deciding that maybe he should go ask Cid for help, he turned around and went back into the First District. Upon entering, he found more monsters staring back at him. He quickly went to work, destroying the creatures every time they dared get close. Eventually, he got too tired to swing, and he had to resort to running away. He rushed down the steps, looking for Cid's shop, and quickly entered. He stood there a moment, catching his breath. He looked up, and realized that Cid wasn't there. Confused, he walked back out of the shop, still holding the Keyblade.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere."

Sora turned quickly at the sound of the voice. "Who are you?"

"And they'll keep on coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade." A young man was leaning against the wall of the shop. He pointed at the weapon in Sora's hand. Sora stared at him, wary. The man continued. "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?" He put his hand up to his forehead.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Sora asked angrily.

"Never mind." The man walked towards him. "Now, let's see that Keyblade."

"What?" Sora said in surprise. "There's no way you're getting this!" He dropped into his fighting stance.

The man was silent for a second, but then sighed, pulling out a large sword- or was it an oversized gun? "All right, then have it your way."

"All right then, we will!" Suddenly, someone landed from above in front of Sora, between him and the man. A girl had dropped down from apparently Cid's store's roof.

"What the-" The man said, shocked. His face turned sour as he saw who it was who had dropped down. "Koto… What are you doing? Why aren't you with Aerith?"

"Hmmmm~? Well I was just going on my normal patrol route," She looked over at Sora and winked. "Official police business, you know," She looked back at the man. "And I happened to notice this kid getting attacked by Heartless, so I figured I'd help him, right? Only turns out he can fight them! Didn't need any help at all! So _then_ I thought 'oh, I ought to go talk to him seeing as he can fight them', but then even more of the little suckers showed up, and I decided to watch him beat them all up, and then who should show up but Mister Sour Man himself!" She laughed. "What, you're gonna beat up a little kid, Leon? As an ally of justice, that is something I can't allow!" She finished off her spiel with a dramatic point at the man.

Both boys were at a complete loss for words, until the man rubbed his temples with his hand and grimaced.

"Koto. I am _sort of_ in the middle of something important here." He glanced at Sora over her shoulder. "Just leave me and this kid alone, and-"

"What, so you can rob this poor newbie of the only thing protecting him? I overheard you and the others talking! What'd this kid ever do to you?"

"Wh- How much did you hear? Koto, this kid is-"

"Under my protection!" The girl grabbed Sora and pulled him close to her protectively. "It's a policewoman's job to defend the innocent!"

The man stared at her blankly.

"Okay. Okay, you know what? Fine. If you really feel the need to make things difficult, fine." He glared at the two of them. "Stay in your fantasy of being an 'ally of justice'. I'll just take you down with him."

"Then it's settled!" The girl had been wearing a large purple coat, but she threw it aside onto the ground away from them. Underneath, she was wearing a sort of kimono-styled outfit, only with smaller sleeves and the skirt was quite short. "If we win, you leave the kid alone. If you win, you can have him! Deal? Deal!" She spun around once, showing her excitement.

"Tch. You maniacal princess. Why can't you ever just listen to what we tell you?" The man yelled, and pointed his gunblade at Sora. A large blast of fire shot towards him.

The girl darted out of the way, and Sora nearly got hit. The girl laughed, reaching back to tighten the yellow bow holding her bright red hair in a ponytail with.

"Come on, kid! You'll have to be quick if you want to survive!"

Sora felt like crying. What on earth had he ever done to deserve all this?

* * *

**We just don't know, Sora.**

**I believe I forgot to mention- both Reimu and Marisa are in their Embodiment of Scarlet Devil outfits for this story! For now. I'm debating on whether later in the story if Marisa should change. Shrug!  
**

**Ah, I'm so excited to get started on the really new chapters! I have it so much planned out! Only one more chapter and after that I'll need to get used to actually typing new material again! Is this what true writers feel? Have I finally become a Super High-School Level Fanfic Writer? (Probably not).  
**

**Also: more like MANnosuke, right? (for the love of god, no)  
**

**As always, thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions please feel free to say 'em! uwu  
**


	5. Beloved Tomboyish Engineer

"Come on, boy! Leon doesn't play nice!" The woman pulled Sora out of the way of yet another fire blast from 'Leon's' gun-blade. Sora, completely confused as to why he was being attacked and helped by the strange man and woman, quickly jumped back, narrowly missing a large leap from Leon, who swung his sword down with so much power, Sora was certain he saw the ground crack.

"Kotohime!" Leon yelled furiously. "Why can't you just leave me to what I need to do and stay with Aerith? Why do you-" He shot another blast of fire at Sora, which hit his shoulder, causing him to double over in pain, only to be pulled out of harm's way yet again by the woman. "-feel the need to always get in the way!" He ferociously swung at the two of them, just missing Kotohime, who ducked under and pushed Sora out of the way.

"Because it's fun and it makes you mad!" Kotohime gave a large, goofy smile, and tried to jump-kick Leon in the face, which he easily dodged. Sora ran from behind and smacked the back of his head with the Keyblade, which did little more than make him turn angrily towards him with a counter-strike. Sora went flying, landing near a lamppost. "Now, how rude!" Kotohime yelled, a look of mock anger on her face. She leapt towards the man, successfully kicking him; however, he was ready this time, grabbed her ankle, and proceeded to swing her around a few times by it, letting go and causing her to fly towards the same lamppost that Sora was dizzily getting up next to. He watched her land on her feet next to him.

"Uh, are you okay…?" He asked. She nodded, and looked at him closely. She then looked at Leon who was walking towards them, clearly annoyed by all of this. She looked back at Sora with a malicious grin. Sora did not like this look. "U-um, what are you-!" He didn't get to finish, as Kotohime proceeded to grab him by the shoulders and threw him at the approaching man. She yelled after him,

"Smash his face in!"

Sora didn't even have time to think. On instinct, as he approached Leon, he held out his Keyblade and smacked the man very hard on his face. Sora landed next to him, unfortunately right on his head. Leon, however, was still standing for a moment, but then fell onto his right knee with a pained expression. He looked at the boy next to him who was shakily getting up.

"Now…you're…gonna…you're gonna…" But once again, Sora was unable to finish his sentence. He toppled over backwards, his hand still tightly gripped on the Keyblade. Leon got up to find Kotohime right in front of him, an amused expression on her face. He glared at her.

"Hey, I was only having a little fun. Besides, you got him, didn't you?" She turned to the unconscious boy. "Aw, look at him! Look at his chubby little cheeks!" She giggled. "What a cutie!"

"Tch. Whatever, Princess Shotacon."

"H-HEY!" Kotohime's face turned red and she stomped the ground. She was about to say more, but was interrupted by a new voice from behind them.

"Aw, you're slipping, Leon."

The two of them turned to see another young woman, her fists on her hips and a smile on her face. Leon looked back to Sora.

"Only because _someone_ decided to interfere."

"I was only protecting the innocent-" Kotohime immediately piped down as Leon gave her his worst glare yet.

"But even without that. It looks like things are worse than we thought. A lot worse." The three of them looked at the weapon in the boy's hand.

* * *

Following Rinnosuke's advice, Reimu walked silently down the 2nd District. Those strange creatures had finally gotten it through their heads that approaching her meant certain death, and she was able to search the area in what little she could call "peace". She gazed at the colorful buildings around her, at the dark sky above, and at the empty, almost depressing plaza in front of her. She stopped walking and scratched her head.

"Geez. Where is everyone?" She looked around her. "You'd think there'd be _some_ forms of life here…"

"You'd think that, wouldn't you?"

Immediately, Reimu summoned her _gohei_ and looked around, wary.

"Hey, now! No reason for that!" The voice came from behind. Reimu turned towards a fountain behind her, and saw that a small girl was sitting on it. She was throwing something into the air and catching it as it spun down. The girl smiled and jumped up off of the fountain.

"Who are you?" Reimu asked, lowering the _gohei_ but keeping it out.

"Hehe, now that's a good question. Who are _you_?"

"I asked first."

"Well I asked now!"

"What?" Reimu's eyebrow twitched. She did not like this younger-looking girl. "Look, you. I am not in the mood for random games with random girls. Now, if you're done being weird—" But the girl pouted and put her hands on her hips.

"What's up with you? I'm just trying to be friendly."

"Yeah, well, you're not very good at it."

The girl huffed and pushed a brown braid back behind her shoulder with the thing in her hand. Reimu realized it was a wrench.

"Hmph. Forget it, then." She turned and stomped towards the large doors back to 1st District. "This was a waste of my time." Reimu watched her go, silently agreeing with her. After the doors had shut, she turned back to where she had been going before and continued onwards.

"*Sigh* at this rate, I'll never find Sora or the others…" She slumped over, dejected. "Ah, this is so anno—ying…"

Her moment was interrupted, however, by a large crash that thundered throughout the district. "What was that!" She yelled, jumping in shock. She looked around wildly for the source of the noise. She noticed a small sign with the words '3RD DISTRICT' near an alley. Going down and turning a corner, she saw a new door. It too had the '3RD DISTRICT' sign next to it. Determined to figure out what that noise was, Reimu rushed over to it and opened the door.

* * *

Donald and Goofy walked along a small waterway, in a back alley. Donald led the way, while Goofy lagged behind, looking around.

"Gawrsh, there's nobody here. Sure is spooky!"

"Aw, phooey. I'm not scared!" Of course, Donald didn't see the hand that was reaching out to tap his shoulder. Once it had touched him, he stopped for a millisecond, and jumped high into the air with a yell. He landed by grabbing onto Goofy's back, the two of them looking around wildly.

"Excuse me. Did the king send you?"

They turned slowly behind them. A woman in a pink dress was standing there, looking a little hesitant.

* * *

"Come on, lazy bum. Wake up."

Rising slowly on the bed he was lying on, Sora shook his head, opening his eyes slowly. He looked over at who was speaking to him, and realized that it was _Kairi_. She leaned over to him. "You okay?"

Sora nodded. "I guess…"

"Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblade. But it's your heart they really want, because you wield the Keyblade."

Sora didn't seem to process any of this. He was busy looking at Kairi's face.

"I'm so glad that you're okay, Kairi."

"Kairi? Who are you talking about? I'm the great ninja Yuffie!"

"Huh?" Sora blinked, and Kairi was gone. In her place was another young woman.

"I think you might've overdone it, Squall." 'Yuffie' turned over to the man leaning on the wall. He walked over to them.

"That's Leon."

"Pfft." Kotohime was sitting at a table in the center of the room, a plate of disgusting-looking food in front of her. She was looking interestedly at Sora.

"I thought I said no talking until you finish your food."

Kotohime rolled her eyes and looked down at the plate unhappily. Leon walked a few more steps towards the two at the bed, and passed Sora's weapon, leaning on a column.

"The Keyblade…" Sora said.

"Yeah, we had to get it away from you to shake off those creatures." Yuffie walked over to Leon, wagging her finger. "It turns out that's how they were tracking you."

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them." Leon-or was it Squall?-crossed his arms. "But it won't work for long. Still…"

Sora had been staring at the ground, trying to figure out what these guys were talking about. As Leon paused, he looked up.

"Hard to believe that you of all people are the chosen one." He picked up the Keyblade and swung it with a grunt. With a flash of light (and many sparkles), it disappeared from his hand and went to Sora's. "Well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers." He walked a few steps towards Sora. Sora decided that if he wanted to figure out what was happening, he'd better ask.

"Why don't you start making sense! What's going on here?"

"Okay, you know that there are many other worlds out there besides your castle and this town, right?"

"Yeah." Donald, Goofy, and the pink-dressed woman were in a separate room from the rest of the others.

"But they're supposed to be a secret." Goofy put his hands to his mouth.

"They've been secret because they've never been connected. Until now." She closed her eyes. "When the Heartless came, everything changed."

"The Heartless?" Sora asked Leon.

"The ones who attacked you, you remember?" Kotohime said, her hand shaking with another fork of the food.

"Okay Koto, that's enough." Yuffie winked at her, and she gleefully leapt up from her chair and skipped to sit on the other side of Sora. Leon was about to say something, but decided it wasn't worth it. He continued to Sora.

"Those without hearts."

"The darkness in people's hearts—that's what attracts them." Yuffie said.

"And there is darkness within every heart." Leon said, solemnly.

"Hey, have you heard of someone named Ansem?" Yuffie suddenly turned to Sora.

"Ansem?" Goofy asked, tilting his head.

"He was studying the Heartless." The pink woman replied. "He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report."

"Gawrsh, uh, can we see it?" Goofy asked, holding out his hand. Donald was tapping the floor with his foot impatiently. The woman shook her head.

"Its pages are scattered everywhere."

"Scattered?" Donald asked.

"Yes. To many worlds."

"Oh, then maybe the king went to find 'em." Goofy put his fist in his other hand. Donald nodded.

"Yes, those were my thoughts exactly."

"We've gotta find him quick!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Wait!" Donald said to him. "First, we need to find that 'key'!"

"That's right. The Keyblade." The woman said.

"So…this is the key?" Sora asked, holding the weapon out in front of him.

"Exactly!" Yuffie said, with Kotohime nodding happily.

"The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade." Leon turned and walked a little bit away. "That's why they'll keep coming after you no matter what."

"Which is why you need to be careful, cutie!" Kotohime said, flicking a spike of Sora's hair with her finger. "Don't let the mean ol' Heartless take your heart!"

Yuffie giggled, a sly expression on her face. "Now, now, Princess Shotacon. This is serious. Don't go flirting with the chosen one."

Sora had no idea what they were talking about, but he could tell by Kotohime's face that they were insulting her. He decided to ignore it.

"Well, I didn't ask for this." He said.

"The Keyblade chooses its master. And it chose you." Yuffie turned to him, shrugging.

"So tough luck." Leon leaned against a door.

"How did all this happen?" Sora asked. "I remember being in my room…"

It had taken him a while, but he finally realized it.

"Wait a minute! What happened to my home? My island? Reimu! Everyone…"

Kotohime and Yuffie looked at each other, then back to Sora, each with pity. Leon didn't even look up from the ground.

"You know what? I really don't know."

Sora looked down as well, dejected. Kotohime stood up and turned to him.

"Hey, hey! It's gonna be okay! Cheer up! Standing here moping isn't gonna do us any good!" She grabbed his arm. "Here, I'll give you the graaaaaand tour!" She pulled him over to a window. "That there is Second District! That's where most of the Heartless like to hang out, for some reason. It's not like people are stupid enough to hang out in the plaza unprotected." Sora suddenly remembered the man he had seen earlier getting his heart taken. Kotohime took him over to Leon, still leaning on the door. "This is Squ-" She stopped herself. "This is Leon! He's a jerk. Don't be friends with him." Leon looked at her, annoyed.

"Didn't I tell you to eat until it was completely finished?"

"Stupid. Yuffie said I could stop! Right, Yuffie?"

Yuffie nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"Leon, you shouldn't punish her for every little thing she does." She giggled. "Even if what she does is exactly what you tell her NOT to do."

"Huh?" Sora asked looking from all three of them. "How come she has to do what you tell her to do?"

"Because," Kotohime said, and put on a mock imitation of Leon. "The princess should learn to act her age and more like a fitting ruler and blah blah blah look at me I'm Leon, my sword is a gun, I'm a huge jerk who can't take a joke ever when it's times like these we ought to keep our heads up and have a little fun because it's all we… all we have…" She quieted and looked down, her face suddenly the exact opposite of what it had been a second ago, staring at something on the floor that wasn't there. Yuffie quickly got up and gently shook her, whispering something into her ear. Immediately she reverted into her peppy demeanor.

"Uh," Sora said, but a glance from Yuffie gave him the impression that what just happened was not to be acknowledged. Not sure what to say, he decided to act like that moment hadn't occurred. "Are… are you really a princess?

"Yup! You may now curtsy, bow, and genuflect in my honor." She gave an actually regal-sounding laugh. "Oh ho ho ho~!"

Sora was absolutely dumbfounded at the rapid changes this girl was going through. Something had obviously happened to her, but he didn't want to push it. He didn't need to say anything else, however.

"Next stop on the tour!" She grabbed him and pulled him over to a large, blue chest on the table in the center of the room. "This is a treasure chest! I dunno what's in it, though. Leon won't tell me."

"You know," Yuffie piped up from the bed. "I've heard that the Keyblade can open all sorts of locks. Why don't you give it a try?"

Sora nodded. He turned to the chest, and tapped it twice with the Keyblade. Instantly, it popped open, and Kotohime peered inside.

"Ooh, elixir!" She pulled it out. "Leon, why'd you have something like this in a big ol' treasure chest?"

"Koto. He never told you what was in there because _he didn't know_." Yuffie called from the bed. Kotohime and Sora turned to Leon, who was determinedly looking away from them. He was slightly red.

Kotohime pulled Sora next to a door. Sora made to open it, but Leon called after them.

"It's dangerous out there. Don't wander off."

Pouting, Kotohime pulled Sora around the room some more, showing him obviously useless trinkets but still managing to make him laugh. Eventually, they began getting rather loud with their laughing, and Leon, very obviously getting annoyed, spoke loudly and directly to Sora.

"Sooner or later, the Heartless will find you. You'd best prepare yourself."

"Aw, Leon. Don't scare the poor kid." Yuffie said.

"Yeah. He's been through a lot, right?" Kotohime asked, plopping down on the bed next to Yuffie.

_You seem to be one to talk, _Sora thought, taking care not to actually say that. "Prepare myself?" He asked.

"To fight for your life. Are you ready?"

"Um, yeah. I guess."

Leon got up from leaning. "Yuffie. Koto. Let's go join Aerith. She should be there by now with the other visitors."

"Leon!" Yuffie and Kotohime had sprung up, pointing over at the other side of the room. The same Heartless that Sora had seen when the man had lost his heart appeared, rattling its head, which was covered by a helmet.

"Yuffie, take Koto and go!" Leon yelled.

Donald was walking towards a door, when it swung open onto him, and Yuffie ran out, leading Kotohime by the arm. The pink woman watched in surprise as the two of them ran past her.

"Yuffie? Princess?" She followed after them, quickly.

Leon and Sora both had their weapons out. Leon swung his, and shouted, "Sora, let's go!"

Together, they threw the Heartless out the window, where it fell to the ground. Leon hopped out of the same window, while Sora ran out the other door. Meanwhile, the door that Yuffie and Kotohime had run out of slowly opened, revealing a flattened Donald. Goofy decided it would be more polite not to say anything.

* * *

"Don't bother with the small fry." Leon was telling Sora, as they were being surrounded by Heartless. "Find the leader!" Sora nodded. Leon did as well, and turned. "Let's go!" And he ran down the alley. Sora began to follow him, but was stopped by a sudden swarm of the helmeted Heartless. He quickly disposed of them, but with every one he destroyed, it seemed there were two more waiting for him to slip up, waiting to take the poor boy's heart. Eventually, Sora realized that he would have to run.

"This is a whole lot easier when Reimu's fighting tooooo!" He wailed, running from the pursuing Heartless.

* * *

Speaking of Reimu fighting, that was exactly what she was doing at that moment. She had entered the 3rd District, and at first it had seemed that the loud crash was only her imagination. But as she had begun to walk around, more and more of those scary creatures (of course, she still didn't know what they were called) kept appearing, and she had been fighting non-stop ever since.

"Why!" She yelled, as she slashed another creature with her _gohei_, "Won't! You! All! DIE!" She ran around, trying to evade the smaller creatures' claws, and the bigger, helmeted creatures' dashing spins. Everywhere she turned, more and more creatures seemed to be there, until she finally realized that she was completely surrounded. "…Geez. How annoying. What I wouldn't give for Sora's help right now…"

"Well, I'm not this 'Sora' person, but maybe I can still help?"

Reimu knew that voice. She turned and saw the young girl from before, still throwing that wrench into the air and catching it. But there was a new change; behind the girl was a large _tank_, looking very much like a huge, metal flower, with a yin-yang symbol painted neatly onto it. Reimu stared in surprise as the girl hopped on top of the tank, and pointed at the creatures behind Reimu.

"Outta the way, red-white! I'm in a temper, and the only prescription is more Heartless killing!" Reimu ran out of the way, as with a stomp of the girl's foot, the tank began to fire large bullets. After a few rounds, the Heartless finally began to retreat. Once they were all gone, the girl hopped off of the tank. She turned to Reimu and smirked.

"So! How's _that_ for friendliness?"

"...All right. We can be friends."

The girl laughed.

"Well, well! And here I thought you were just a rotten orange!" She leaned against the tank. "Since we're friends now, I guess I ought'a answer your question. My name…" She hopped on top of the tank again, and struck a confident-looking pose. "…Is Rika! Master engineer of Traverse Town! In fact, I'm even better than that old coot Cid, If I do say so myself." She winked.

Reimu didn't know whether to laugh or not. Instead, she just smiled. "Well, then, hi, Rika. Thanks for helping me out. I'm Reimu, and in case you couldn't tell, I'm pretty new here."

Rika giggled. "Of course you are! I knew it when I first saw you. I mean, only an idiot or a newbie would walk around 2nd District alone, and you don't look like a moron to me."

"Thanks."

"But anyway." Rika continued. "Why _are_ you walking around 2nd- Oh wait, we're in 3rd now, aren't we- Well, why are you walking around by yourself? You're not looking for any other survivors of your world, are you?"

"…Yeah. I am. I'm looking for my friends. They were with me when…" She looked down. Rika knew not to push it.

"Well, doing it alone isn't gonna help. Why don't I- MOVE!" Her sudden yell took Reimu by surprise. She felt, too late, the Heartless slash at her back. She heard the tank fire again, but was unable to move out of the way in time. Thankfully, the shell only hit the Heartless, but the blast still rocketed her high into the air. She heard Rika shout something, but she couldn't understand; she was too high up.

_Oh, gods. Oh, oh, no._ She thought to herself. _Is this it? Really? I lose my friends and get blown up by an annoying girl? _She closed her eyes tight as she began to fall down. _Please, if there's anyone listening, anyone at all… _

"I can't die! Not now!" She cried out. "Let me be a flying maiden like I always dreamed about!"

She scrunched up her body close. Maybe that would lessen the impact of her certain doom on the cold stone ground. She awaited the fate fast approaching from below…

…

…Something wasn't right.

Reimu opened her eyes, expecting to see the sky growing farther away from her, expecting to see the buildings grow as she fell to the ground to her demise. But, as soon as she fully opened them and took a long look around, she realized that something was wrong. Dreadfully wrong. Wonderfully, amazingly, magically wrong.

Because Reimu wasn't falling. She hadn't hit the ground, or miraculously somehow grabbed onto something to stop the fall. No, Reimu was still in the air, and she wasn't even slowly drifting down. She was just... _floating_, still curled into a ball, but absolutely still in the air. Her head felt light.

"Am…am…I…?"

She knew she shouldn't, but she did so anyway. She looked down at Rika, who was staring wide-eyed, her mouth gaping, at Reimu.

"How am I doing this?" She wondered aloud. She looked over at the top of a building. "Wow. I'm even higher than that tall thing. I wonder if I can get on that roof." She imagined herself flying over triumphantly. She giggled. "That would be fun…Ah!" She had actually begun to drift towards the roof. Slowly, she understood. "So this is how you fly." She said to herself. She stopped. She felt like she wanted to go higher; she felt herself slowly rise. "This is taking too long!" She cried out, and willed herself to go faster. It worked. She went higher and higher, and suddenly dropped down, laughing as she did so. On the ground, Rika gasped as Reimu fell, fell, fell, and when Reimu was only yards from the ground, she shouted out,

"Rei-!" But she stopped midway, because Reimu shot back up just before touching the ground. She spun around, went up, down, left, and right, and around a building. Eventually, she landed lightly next to Rika, breathing heavily. Her hair was messed up, and she was sweating on her forehead. Rika stared at her, still open-mouthed.

"How… How did you _do_ that?"

"I…ha…I honestly…don't…ha…know…!"

Rika closed her mouth, but her eyes were still wide, looking over Reimu.

"Well. However you did it, you did it. And that…" She gave a large, excited smile. "…Is just WAY TOO COOL!" Her yell echoed around the empty air. "How was it? Was it fun? How did you know you weren't gonna fall and die?!"

"It was amazing." Reimu said, regaining her breath. "The wind rushing through my hair- I know it sounds cliché, but it was just…" She looked up at the sky. "I've always wanted to fly. That was a dream some of my friends and I as little girls. One of them always thought you needed a broom, but I guess that's not the case, huh?" She looked at Rika. Rika shrugged.

"I dunno. You're the one flying."

"Yeah, yeah."

The two girls were silent. Then, Rika spoke.

"Well, neither of us know just how in the hell you did that, so no use just standing here, right? Why don't we get out of here? There's sure to be more Heartless coming soon."

"Y-yeah." Reimu turned to the tank. "Um, how are you…" But Rika answered her question by tapping the yin-yang symbol on the tank's side. The tank glowed with a white light, and seemed to disappear. However, upon closer inspection, Reimu realized that it had merely shrunk, and Rika put the miniature tank into her pocket.

"Shall we go?" The younger girl asked, and Reimu nodded and followed her through a door marked '1ST DISTRICT'.

* * *

Sora exited the Dalmatian House. He felt sorry for Pongo and Perdita, losing their puppies like that. But helping them would have to wait; he was currently searching for the leader of the Heartless like Leon told him to. Running past more of the helmeted and smaller Heartless, he headed towards the center of the district. He passed an alleyway, and he turned into it, running around the corner, and eventually reaching the door with the '3RD DISTRICT' sign. He ran through it. As he entered the district, he noticed that it was dead silent. Shrugging, he ran towards some steps.

Meanwhile, above him on a balcony, Goofy thought he heard the door close, and rushed over to the edge to see. However, two Heartless suddenly appeared, causing him to bring out his shield and hide behind it cautiously.

"Gawrsh, are these the Heartless guys?" He asked a determined-looking Donald, tapping his back with his magic staff.

"Let's go get 'em, Goofy!" Donald said, pointing the staff at the two monsters.

* * *

"Oh, geez." Rika was fishing around in her pockets, leaning against the door to the 3rd District.

"What's wrong?" Reimu asked.

"I dropped my Flower Tank! It must be back in there." She pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the door. Reimu grinned.

"Don't worry, I'll get it."

"You sure? The Heartless will definitely show up, you know."

Reimu smirked. "Unless they can fly, I don't think they'll be too much of a problem."

Rika shrugged and started over to a shop on the other side of the plaza marked 'ITEMS SHOP'. "I'll be over here when you find it."

Reimu nodded and turned back to the door, and re-entered 3rd District.

* * *

Perhaps the easiest way to describe the events that unfolded next would be to put them in a list.

1. Donald and Goofy, even though they were both considerably strong, were completely unprepared to fight against the new foes, and it was only natural that they were thrown off of the balcony, high into the air.

2. Sora, in turn, was completely unprepared for the large, anthropomorphic dog and duck landing together on him, and then finding himself looking up at the face of a certain girl he was looking for.

3. Finally, Reimu, who hadn't noticed her friend right in front of her (as she was on the ground, searching for the tiny tank), was completely unprepared to find herself suddenly staring at Sora's shoes, and a few seconds afterwards, his face, for he had been flattened by two rather odd characters.

Sora's right arm was luckily able to _not_ be in the dog-pile, and he tightly gripped the Keyblade in his hand. Donald and Goofy stared, wide-eyed, at it.

"The key!" They said, in unison.

"S-Sora?!" Reimu said, looking at her friend in shock.

"Reimu!" Sora cried, apparently forgetting that he was being laid on.

"Reimu?" Goofy asked, also looking at the girl.

"Um…" She replied, looking over the anthropomorphic dog curiously.

Suddenly, the ground and buildings around them began to rumble. The four of them looked around in confusion, when suddenly, large, grey pillars rose from the ground, blocking all and any exits from the square. On top of the pillars, the helmeted Heartless appeared, spinning around and leering at the four of them with those unblinking, yellow orbs of eyes. The three on the ground quickly got up, readied their weapons, and coincidentally got into a formation. Reimu stepped back and summoned her _gohei_, which both Donald and Goofy looked curiously at for a few seconds, but quickly looked back ahead of them as the Heartless leapt from the pillars onto the square with them.

"Kill these guys first, introductions later. Agreed?" Reimu asked the others.

"Agreed!" The boys shouted, and the four of them rushed into battle.

* * *

**Kotohime is weird, even by Kingdom Hearts standards. I wonder what happened to her to make her like that? Hehehehe. **

**And, yet again, Reimu gains a new power just because she's Reimu. Must be infuriating to someone who has to work and train hard to be able to do things, and then watch as Reimu just happens to get fantastical abilities by not doing anything...  
**

**I made a dumb little cover picture thingy for this. It should be up, I don't know. Shrug!  
**

**As always, questions or comments are appreciated!  
**

**Next time: Heartless battle! Exposition! Villain cameos! And a glimpse into the first world our heroes will be visiting perhaps? Stay tuned! uwu  
**


	6. Traverse Town Teahouse - Gummi Tea

They were doing pretty well, actually. Without even speaking to each other or thinking about it, the four of them had made a sort of strategy; Sora would hit the Heartless over to Goofy, who then smacked it over the head with his shield. The Heartless, dazed, then wobbled over to the waiting Reimu, who hit it over to Donald, who then destroyed the creature with magic. It was a slow system, but it was working.

"Are they stopping yet?" Reimu yelled, sending another Heartless to Donald.

"No! They just keep coming!" Sora yelled back, swiping and at yet more Heartless.

"Augh! How long is this gonna take?" Donald cried out in frustration.

Not long.

Reimu saw the last Heartless, and wasted no time in running over and dispatching it. As it faded away, she looked back at the boys and gave a thumbs up. Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran over to her.

"Wow, Reimu! That was great!" Sora said, impressed.

"Gawrsh! I'm glad you're not with them!" Goofy added.

"You guys… It was just one Heartless… Not that big of a deal…" Reimu scratched the back of her head, but it was clear that she was pleased with herself.

Silence, for a moment. Donald was looking at the barriers preventing their leaving.

"How are we going to get out…?" He asked no one in particular. The others turned to him and looked as well. Sora made to move towards the closest pillar, but stopped midway and quickly looked up. Five large, purple things were falling from the sky, and bounced on the ground behind them. They instantly flew towards each other, and slammed down on the ground again. The four of them realized it was a large suit of armor, with the legs and arms detached and floating. Again, something fell from the sky, but this time it was just a small helmet, which floated to the top of the torso part where a helmet would logically be. The armor looked at them silently- at least, they _thought _it was looking at them, since they couldn't see its eyes (if it even had any). Then, it began to step towards them.

[BGM: Decisive Magic Battle! ~ Fight it Out!]

The four of them darted out of the way. The armor had hands that were more like claws than anything, and it used these to swipe ferociously at its smaller targets. Sora began to jump and swipe, jump and swipe, until the armor went rigid and its arms began to spin around, hitting Sora and throwing him against a wall. Shaking it off, Sora quickly got up and was knocked over again by Goofy, who had also been flung by the spinning arms. Reimu and Donald were busy running around the armor, not noticing that their allies weren't right with them.

"Thunder! Thunder!" Donald repeatedly called out, waving his staff in the air. Lightning strikes were all around, repeatedly missing the armor. "Graaagh!" He yelled out in frustration. "Why don't you stand still!"

Sora and Goofy had gotten off of each other and ran to help. They both began swiping at the armor's legs with their weapons. Reimu, however, kept her distance.

_Ah, what can I do…_ She thought to herself. The armor had begun to jump around, nearly squashing the boys. _They seem to have it under control. Well, not that duck, anyway. Doesn't he have something for moving targets?_

…_Moving targets…_

Reimu knew exactly what she could do.

"「Homing Amulet」!"

Sora heard her yell, and spun around to look at her. He saw the card that had appeared in her hand glowing brightly, and, remembering what happened last time Reimu did that, he instantly ran away from the armor, pulling Goofy with him, who, in turn, pulled Donald. Once again, the card split into two orbs circling Reimu, shooting out two lines of multiple, identical amulets, heading straight for the armor. They kept alternating between going towards the legs, hands, and torso, however.

_The best thing to do is probably just focus on one and weaken it down that way… _Reimu thought. Suddenly, all pieces of the armor began behaving erratically, moving much faster and attacking the boys.

"Wh- Reimu! You can't just _stand _there! Behind you!" Sora's yell brought her back to reality; she hadn't realized that she had just been standing there staring at the guys fighting. She quickly turned and was met with the pair of hands punching her hard in the chest, sending her flying. "REIMU!" Sora yelled, running over to where she was- then stopped, frozen.

How… how was Reimu just floating there in the air?

Reimu shook herself and glared at the hands which seemed surprised themselves (as surprised as floating monster hands could be, of course) at this new development.

"Oh, you shouldn't have done that." She said angrily. She started flying around the area, directing the homing amulets towards each piece of armor as she got close to them. The boys, while extremely shocked (especially Sora), each knew it would be better to focus on fighting rather than the flying maiden.

Sora ran towards Donald, blocking the hands' swipes at the duck with his Keyblade. Donald tried once again in vain to hit the armor with lightning, but the armor's hands, now "reconnected" to the torso (well, as reconnected as detached, floating arms and legs can _be_), simply swiped at the duck and knocked him over. He didn't get up.

"Donald!" Goofy cried, rushing over to him. Sora ran past him towards the armor, raising the Keyblade.

"Come on!" He yelled at Goofy, and began to attack. Goofy gingerly laid Donald down on the ground, and rushed forward to help. They both hacked away at the torso, arms, and legs of the armor, while Reimu began to shoot at the armor's head, which seemed to do considerable damage. The armor tried to slash the amulets away, but could only block so much with Reimu flying in circles, shooting from all directions. Eventually, the armor broke apart again, with the arms and legs attacking separately as before. Sora went for the legs, while Goofy attacked the hands. Reimu's amulets went in separate directions, with some going to the hands, and some going to the legs. Eventually, after more and more hits, one of the hands disappeared, followed by the other one.

"We're doing it!" Reimu cried out. "Just keep whacking it!"

Sora and Goofy were happy to oblige. Together, they went for one foot, and it too disappeared. The Heartless was getting desperate now. Its remaining foot stomped down on the ground, quickly and dangerously. Reimu stopped shooting the amulets and shot forward towards it. Quickly re-summoning her _gohei_, with a great big slash, she destroyed it, and landed lightly on the ground, turning to face the remaining torso and helmet. It began to float towards them and began to spin, just like its hands had done. However, just before it was able to move, a sudden cry of

"THUNDER!"

And a large lighting bolt shot down, engulfing the armor. It went away, and the armor shone brightly, before the helmet fell off. From the open torso area, a bright light erupted, and what looked like a shining, glittering heart flew up into the sky. The armor disappeared in soft, blue light. The three of them turned around, and saw Donald standing up, his staff pointing at where the armor had been, clutching his head with his free hand. He looked very pleased with himself.

"Donald!" Goofy said happily. "Gawrsh, I thought you were a goner!"

"No way!" He replied, walking towards them. "I'm just not used to this, that's all."

The two of them grinned at each other, then turned to the other two staring at them. Goofy gave them a big smile.

"Well, it's good ta' know that we've found the Key!"

"You know it!" Donald agreed.

"Um." Reimu said, raising her hand slightly. "Question." They looked at her. "What are you talking about?"

* * *

The dog and the duck had finished explaining their mission to the boy and the girl, and the girl had explained that she _couldn't _explain how she had suddenly been able to fly around. Deciding that it wasn't worth getting too confused about, they both agreed to try to look into it later.

"Really? You were looking for _me_?" Sora asked. Donald and Goofy nodded vigorously.

"They, too, have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade." Reimu jumped and turned quickly to see an unfamiliar man and girl standing behind them. She warily summoned and raised her _gohei_, but Sora pushed it down.

"They're alright."

Reimu looked at him, and then stared at the newcomers silently. The girl smiled.

"Are you Sora's friend?"

Reimu nodded.

"Well, hey then! I'm the great ninja, Yuffie! And this guy-" She pointed her thumb back at the man with her. "-Is S- Leon. Leon." Leon looked at Reimu, his serious expression unchanging.

"Er, hello, then. I'm Reimu." She curtsied quickly. "Um. How do you know…" But Sora shook his head.

"It's kinda a long story. I'll tell you later."

Goofy piped up. "Hey, why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel." Reimu turned to him.

"Eh? But we just met! Why would we-" But she stopped suddenly. She looked at Sora, who seemed to be thinking the same as her. "But… a vessel that can go to other worlds…"

"Maybe…" Sora said quietly to her, "I wonder if we could find the others…"

"Riku…And Marisa…" Reimu said softly. "And Kairin." She looked down to see Donald looking up at her.

"Of course!" He cheerfully said, a big, reassuring smile on his face. Sora and Reimu looked at each other, their faces hopeful.

Goofy pulled him away from them and whispered,

"Are you sure?"

"Who knows?" Donald whispered back, his voice back to normal. "But we need him to help us find the king. Maybe she-" He tilted his head slightly towards Reimu. "-can help us find him, too. You saw what she was doing back there!"

"Well, yeah, but what about you? Weren't you knocked out?"

"I woke up and saw her doing all that fancy stuff. Anyway…"

Sora and Reimu were staring at them while they were talking.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Sora whispered to Reimu.

"No idea."

"Hey." They turned. Leon had uncrossed his arms, and he was staring at the two of them expectantly. "Sora. Go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends." He shifted his gaze to Reimu. "So, you're one of the ones he was talking about. Well, I don't know what you can do, but if you're with him, then you ought to go with them, too."

Reimu nodded and looked at Sora. He was looking at the ground sadly. "Sora?" She put her hand on his shoulder. "Sora, should we do it?"

"Yeah. I guess…"

"But!" Donald wagged his finger. "You can't come along looking like that. Understand?"

Goofy and Reimu looked at him, confused. He continued.

"No frowning. No sad face. Okaaa~y?"

"Yeah, ya gotta look funny, like us!" Goofy leaned in next to Donald, but he pushed him away.

"This boat runs on happy faces!" Donald said, cheerfully. He looked over at Reimu. She stared for a beat, and then broke into a big smile.

"Mii~."

"That's right!" Donald exclaimed. "Happy smiles!"

"…Happy?" Sora said quietly, still looking at the ground. He gripped the Keyblade tighter. Everyone else was silent. Reimu removed her hand from his shoulder and leaned in towards him.

"Sora? Are you-" She stopped as Sora bent over, and she stepped back. "Sor-AH!" Sora had sprung back up, and he had the most ridiculous facial expression Reimu had ever seen. He held it for a few seconds, and Donald and Goofy roared with laughter.

"That's one funny face!" Goofy laughed, pointing.

Reimu just stared at him. He dropped the face, and just smiled. Reimu stepped forward and bonked him on the head with her _gohei_. "Next time," she said, as he rubbed his head and more laughter erupted from the two behind them, "Tell me before you pull something like that."

"Hehe… Sorry." He grinned and looked over at the laughing animals. "Hey, why not? We'll go with you guys. That okay, Reimu?"

She nodded. "I thought we were doing that anyway, even with_out_ the face."

"You're not gonna let me off for that, are you?"

"Of course not. Mark my words, I'll scare you so bad one day, you'll cry."

She turned to Donald and Goofy. "Well, I guess we're going to be friends for a while, aren't we?"

Donald held out his hand. "Donald Duck."

Goofy did the same. "Name's Goofy."

Reimu smiled and followed suit. "Reimu."

"And I'm Sora." He put his hand on top of all theirs.

"All for one, one for all." Goofy said happily.

* * *

"_All for one, one for all."_

The magic circle glowed green and purple, showing the four people (well, two people and two animals). Aside from them and the circle itself, the entire room was dark.

"_Those_ two? Those squirts took down that Heartless! Who'd have thought it?"

"Hmph! It must've been Tyche, sir! Always stickin' her nose where it doesn't belong…"

"Such is the powers of the Keyblade, and the powers of the divine. Those children's strength is not their own."

"Why don't we turn them into Heartless? That'll settle things quick enough."

"Everything about these guys should be _forbidden_, milady!"

"And those brats' friends are the king's lackeys." A swish and a thump were heard, like something sharp had been thrust into something. "Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them."

"You're no prize yourself."

"Shut up!" Again, the swish and thump.

"Yo, Captain. Your hook." A girl's voice snickered.

"Enough."

Everyone in the dark room fell silent.

"The Keyblade has chosen the boy. And the gods have chosen the girl." The woman paused. "Will it be them who conquer the darkness? Or will the darkness swallow them? Either way. The both of them could prove to be quite useful…" She smirked.

* * *

After Reimu had been properly introduced to everyone and brought up to speed, she, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Kotohime stood in the plaza of 1st District. Kotohime was busying herself with playing with Aerith's hair, while Leon was telling the four a few important things.

"It's going to be really dangerous out there. After all, you're a couple of kids and there are Heartless everywhere."

"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Reimu asked.

"You should check out the shops here." Yuffie replied. "They've got some pretty neat stuff!"

"Here, we want to give you- Princess, please…" Aerith held out her hand, and Kotohime reluctantly pulled out a small bag from a pocket of her coat and dropped it into her waiting palm. Aerith held it out to Sora. "100 Munny. Spend it as you see fit."

" 'Munny'? What's…" Reimu started, but gasped as Sora opened the bag and pulled out what looked like a golden diamond.

" 'Munny'. It's our currency. I don't know about other worlds, but this'll be accepted here." Aerith smiled. Sora was about to thank her, when-

"Aaaaaah! I-I'll hold onto the money!" Reimu snatched it out of his hand.

"Reimu! Come on…" Sora sighed. "You don't even have pockets. How are you gonna hold it! Just give it back…"

"No, that's okay!" Reimu smiled at him, but her eyes gave off a completely unfriendly look. Sora scratched his head. While Reimu tended to be easy-going and lazy back home, she always turned into a completely different person when money was involved.

"Huh? But then how will you carry it, silly?" Kotohime asked, giggling.

"Hmph. One of these stupid things has gotta be able to act as a stuff-holder or _something_…" Reimu summoned her cards and started waving them around wildly like when she used Homing Amulet. Instantly, the older girls gasped.

"Are- Are those _Spell Cards_?" Yuffie said, staring wide-eyed at them.

"Huh?" Reimu stopped waving. "Spell Cards?"

"Yes!" Aerith said. "They're odd cards that have been showing up all over different worlds, according to gossip in town."

"They start out blank, but if you're capable of using them, you can use your own power and turn them into powerful weapons!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Apparently no two Spell Cards are alike, and they're totally customized by the user. You could make a whole repertoire of 'em!" She crossed her arms and nodded. "I've never actually seen any until now. I thought they were really just gossip."

Sora and Reimu looked interestedly at the cards.

"Really? So that's what these are?" Reimu asked. She looked up. "And you say the gossip is that you can make them do whatever you want?"

"Yep!" Kotohime said. "And not just anybody can use them, apparently! So you must be super lucky!"

"Huh…" Reimu looked back down at the cards. Sora crossed his arms.

"Man, you can fly, you have those cool cards… how come _you're_ getting so much cool stuff?"

"Aren't you 'the chosen one'? Maybe I'm getting all this cool stuff to make up for that."

Everyone laughed at that, though Reimu hadn't been joking.

* * *

Everyone else had left, and Reimu had begrudgingly handed over the munny to Sora for safe-keeping.

"The gummi ship is outside the gate." Donald pointed at a large door at the other end of the plaza.

"Um. The… the what?" Reimu asked, confused.

"Er, like the candy…?" Sora asked, thinking of 'Gummy Balls', a popular candy on the main island.

"No, silly! That's our ship!" Donald laughed.

"Oh, just wait 'til you see it!" Goofy said.

"Hold on." Donald looked at Goofy, then back to Sora and Reimu. "Here, you two. This is for you!" He lifted his staff, and a glowing, multicolored circle appeared underneath Sora's feet. It glowed intensely, until the glow engulfed Sora. It dimmed down, and the circle disappeared.

"Wh-what was that?!" Sora exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"Now, you can use magic!" Donald beamed. "I'm a skilled mage, you know. But it'll be better with more magic on our team!" He turned to Reimu. "Your turn!"

Reimu stood rigid. She didn't particularly like magic, unlike Marisa. She had always preferred 'divine power' when playing with her and Kairi. Of course, now that she _had _special powers, she wondered if she was using magic after all. She watched as Donald raised his staff again. Again, the circle appeared, under Reimu's feet. However, as soon as it appeared, the circle sputtered and faded away.

"Huh?" Donald tapped his staff and raised it again. The same thing occurred. "Uh, Reimu, do you already use magic?"

Reimu thought about it, and shook her head. "Nope. It's 'divine power'." She smiled. "I guess it cancels it out, huh?"

Donald shrugged.

* * *

Meanwhile, standing a bit away from them, Jiminy Cricket leaned on his little red umbrella. "Well, I see big adventures coming their way!" He chuckled. "Looks like it's up to me to keep track of it all in my journal!" He hopped towards them, climbed up Goofy's pants, shirt, and finally, the back of his head. "Pardon me!" He said, as Goofy brought up his hand to scratch and picked up Jiminy by the shirt collar.

"Ah-hyuk. Here, Jiminy." He lifted his hat and put Jiminy under it. "You'll be safe up there."

"Thanks a lot!" Jiminy called.

Sora and Reimu decided to pretend that they hadn't just seen the talking dog put a talking cricket with a top hat under his own.

* * *

Rinnosuke bowed. "Thank you, and good luck with your journey." Reimu grinned and half-curtsied back. She turned to the others, who were looking at shelves in the shop. Donald was patting the heads of his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Sora looked up from a bunch of green and yellow bottles.

"We got everything?"

Reimu nodded and gave him the satchel full of items.

"Got a bunch of 'potions' and some thing called an 'ether'. Mr. Morichika said they'd help."

"Then, should we go?"

"Mm!" Reimu nodded. She made to open the door, but it flew open and she was met face-to-face with none other than Rika.

"Ah-HA! So THERE you are, you little promise-breaker!" Rika cried angrily.

"Ack! Rika, I-" But Rika cut her off.

"You're lucky I found Flower Tank myself! But I thought you would have at least told me you couldn't find it. You didn't have to _ditch_-" She said it as if it were a swear word. "-me like that! What's your excuse, huh?"

Reimu pointed at Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "They happened. Oh, and a huge Heartless, too."

Rika stared at them silently. "…Oh." She put her hands on her hips. "Well. You could have at least found me." She puffed up one of her cheeks.

"Sorry." Reimu shrugged. "But at least you found the tank, right? Anyway- we need to get going."

" 'Get going'? What're you guys doing?"

"We're going on an adventure!" Sora came into the conversation. "Or, a mission, I guess. I'm Sora, by the way." He held out his hand. Rika rubbed her nose and shook it.

"Rika." She looked over his shoulder and raised her hand. "Oh, hey, Rinnosuke." Rinnosuke looked up from the book he had pulled out, and raised his hand in response. He went back to his book. Rika turned back to the others. "So. An adventurous mission, eh?"

Reimu nodded. Rika grinned. "So you're going to other worlds, then? That's the only way you'll get adventure around here." She giggled. "Well, you must have a ship, right?"

Donald looked over and nodded. Rika smiled broadly. "Well then! As I _am_ the best engineer around, you should let me look at it if you ever need any maintenance!"

Donald shrugged. "If you want, I guess."

Rika beamed at him. "Okay then! It's a deal! I won't even charge you any Munny. Well." She sidestepped around Reimu. "I need to look for some things, and you guys obviously need to get on with your adventure mission." She gave a thumbs up. "Have fun, and don't die! 'Ka~y?"

Sora nodded. "Um, thanks, Rika."

They exited the shop. As Goofy closed the door behind them, Sora looked over at Reimu. "What was that about?"

She sighed. "Later."

Donald and Goofy began to walk ahead of them.

"Come on, you guys! It's time we got moving!" Donald called back at them. They nodded and ran over to them, and exited the gate.

* * *

"Woooooow!" Sora was absolutely amazed at what he and Reimu were now sitting in. "This is so cool!"

"It's… different…" Reimu said, looking at all the flashing buttons, switches, and levers. The beeping was a bit annoying, but honestly, she was just as excited as Sora was. After all, it wasn't everyday that you got pulled off your island and got to ride in spaceships.

Donald and Goofy sat in front. Goofy was talking into a microphone, saying something that sounded like "Chip" and "Dale". Donald swiveled his chair to face Sora and Reimu.

"We travel to different worlds on the gummi ship. But a lot of the Heartless ships attack us and give us a hard time. So you guys should try to keep a lookout, okay?"

"Okay!" Sora and Reimu said together.

* * *

Reimu decided she quite liked gummi travel. There was something absolutely thrilling about quickly dodging enemy Heartless ships' barrages of bullets like it was nothing. Sora, on the other hand, decided that this was something he'd really need to get used to, as it was probably the worst traveling experience he had ever had the misfortune to partake in.

* * *

Soon, the Heartless ships had stopped coming, and the air (space?) was clear.

"Hey… what's that?" Sora asked.

"What's what?" Goofy replied.

"I think he means _that_." Reimu got up and pointed at a dark thing in the distance.

"Oh! That's a world!" Donald said, peering closer. He looked down on a monitor. "Yep! Looks like that's… 'Wonderland'!"

" 'Wonderland'?" Reimu asked. "Sounds wonderful."

"Sure does!" Sora replied, looking very eager. "Let's land already! I wanna see what this world is like!"

"Alright, alright!" Donald said, annoyed, but his face was amused.

* * *

Both Sora and Reimu weren't exactly sure of when they exactly landed, or when they had exited the ship, or how they had fallen down into a hole. But what they _were _sure of now was that they were slowly falling down a sort of tunnel, its walls lined with furniture, windows, and even a fireplace, as if they were falling down an odd elongated house. Donald was very uncomfortable with the experience, and Goofy was actually laying back as he fell, obviously enjoying it. As they neared the bottom to the ground, all four of them heard someone saying _something_…

"Ah! I'm late! Oh man, I'm so late!"

As the four landed, they were suddenly aware that someone else had been falling above them, at a much faster pace. Goofy was knocked out of his reverie by someone landing right on his stomach and hopping off.

"Oh! Uh, sorry! But I'm really late!"

None of them had time to react. The pink-dressed girl was already gone, speeding down an adjacent hallway. Sora could've sworn that she had been wearing something like rabbit ears on her head.

* * *

"_Ahem._ _As it seems we are missing one party member, I suppose there will just be more tea for us." The blonde girl standing up at the end of the table said. The others sitting in chairs at the table nodded sadly. "I suppose we can just begin, then." The girl sat down on the big pink chair behind her. "In honor of the founders of this tea party, on their journey to other lands to find the perfect teas…" She gestured to a painting at the other end of the table of a funny-looking older man and a hare. "Let this merry un-birthday party commence!" She clapped her hands and jolly music began to play. The other guests began bouncing in their seats; the group of beautiful young girls who seemed perfect, like dolls; the green-haired young boy pouring tea for himself and munching on cookies; and the long-haired girl sitting closest to the one at the end of the table, and the only one not bouncing along with everyone else. She tried to politely sip her tea, but the teacup was having none of that and bounced out of her hand. She sighed._

"_Excuse me, Miss Alice, but would it be possible…?"_

"_Why of course, Miss Alice." The first blonde girl nodded. She grabbed another teacup and filled it with tea. "Here. This one won't be quite as rude."_

"_Thank you." The younger Alice said. "You know, I've never been to an un-birthday party. We don't celebrate such things back home." She sipped her tea. "I wish we did, though. This is quite enjoyable."_

"_Oh, yes. We have many celebrations here. You should see the Cat during the Bandersnatch Festival. Oh it's too die for- when the Queen isn't around, anyway. Though when she is around, some do tend to die."_

"_She's a horrible woman!" Young Alice said. "I don't like her one bit. I saw her treating those cards so terribly just because they made the simple mistake of painting some roses the wrong color-"_

"_Ah, it's not wise to speak ill of the Queen, even when she's not around." Older Alice frowned. "You're among friends here, Alice, but you never know when one of her lot is sneaking about." She suddenly got up. "Switch!" Everyone frantically ran around the table, swapping spots. Some of the doll-like girls got tangled up in something, although the younger Alice didn't know what or how, as she couldn't see anything. She also couldn't see the older Alice grimace, twiddle her fingers behind her back quickly in various motions, and as a result the pretty girls were able to get free of whatever was entangling them and find new seats. The two Alices found new seats next to each other._

"_Hmph." Young Alice hmphed. She looked over to the end of the table. Only the large pink chair the other Alice had been sitting in before was empty now. "Where is that last guest you had been talking about?"_

"_Oh, that foolish rabbit's always late. She was probably setting up another practical joke and lost track of time."_

"_Hmm. Does every rabbit in Wonderland have a problem with punctuality? That's the second time today I've heard of a rabbit being late..."_

_As if on cue, the gate to the garden burst open and a pink-dressed girl with white rabbit ears on her head came scrambling to the table. She quickly jumped into the pink chair._

"_Hey! Sorry I'm late!"_

"_Finally decided to show up, did you?" Older Alice smirked._

"_Look here, I literally just told you I'm sorry! I had to dodge the hag." The rabbit girl grabbed a teacup and started pouring tea from a teapot that was on fire into it. The tea came out steaming even more than the other teapots' tea. "Nearly got me! If I hadn't taken a detour through those annoying prissy flowers, I'd 've lost my head!" _

"_Hmm." Older Alice looked at the other guests. "Well, everyone? Should we forgive Miss Tewi for her lateness?"_

_The green-haired boy nodded fervently, his mouth full of sweets. Half the doll-like girls nodded as well, and half of them shook their heads. Older Alice looked at Younger Alice, who smiled sweetly._

"_Oh, why should she be punished for trying to save her head? I think we should let her stay here at the party."_

"_Alright then, Tewi. You may stay." Older Alice laughed. "Like I was going to turn you away."_

"_Wh- you sneak!" Tewi laughed as well. "But wait! I almost forgot!" She rested her head on her hands, fingers laced together, elbows on the table. "I have some pre-tty interesting information~"_

"_Oh?" Older Alice said, pouring Younger Alice more tea._

"_Yes! On my way down, I saw four new faces, just landed at the bottom of the rabbit hole! Just like the little miss next to you!" She grinned. "More newcomers mean more guests at the table, right?"_

"_But all the seats are filled!" Younger Alice exclaimed. "Surely you won't force some of us to leave…?"_

"_Hehehe!" Tewi giggled. "Oh, little girl, little girl. None of **us** will have to go! Just get rid of some of the do-" She suddenly quieted down as the older Alice gave her a frightening glare._

"_We'll just have to make room for them. None of my friends will be made to leave." She looked over the boy, the younger Alice, and the group of beautiful young girls, and finally back to Tewi. "And who knows?" She smiled and took a sip of tea. "Maybe they won't find their way over here in the first place. It's up to Wonderland to decide their fates, after all." She stood up suddenly. "Switch!"_

* * *

**Upupupupupu! It is I, Frost! **_  
_

**Readers of the original version, here it is. The final chapter of using the original chapters. The original actually went a couple chapters beyond this one, but obviously the first visited world has changed, so starting next chapter it's all completely all new material! Exciting!  
**

**This also marks the last of me trying to make each chapter title go in order of the songs in EoSD. I think this one's already stretching it, but since we are dealing with Wonderland now I want to use song title puns that will actually work with the chapters! (Read: I want to make puns with Alice's themes)  
**

**To snoogenz- Ah, I'm sorry you were a bit confused! But as I said earlier, I had been making each chapter title named after the order of the songs in EoSD and that was what came up. I'm sorry to say Cirno will not be appearing in this story! (Of course, there's more than one Kingdon Hearts game, riiiiiight~?)  
**

**And about pairings- oh, man. Shipping. Scourge of fanfictions and fandoms everywhere. Pairings will not have much prevalence in this story. Oh, yes, there will be some moments where I'll have a little fun, but for the most part I'll leave the shipping to you guys! Do people even ship for other people's fanfictions? Isn't that what the fanfictions themselves are for? Ah, my head.  
**

**Next time: Singing flowers! Cat! Merry Un-Birthdays! And a Grimoire wielded by a Girl who Plays with People's Shapes who has a Plastic Mind!  
**

**As always, comments or questions are largely appreciated! Thank you for reading! uww  
**


	7. The Doll Maker of Wonderland

[BGM: Welcome to Wonderland]

"What a weird place." Sora said as the four of them walked down the hallway they had seen the pink-dressed girl go down. At the end of the hallway was a large door, which he opened, behind which was another, smaller door. "Huh?" He opened the smaller door. Behind it was yet another smaller door. "What the…" He opened the third door, and leapt back in surprise as all three doors slammed shut, then opened together to reveal another room. Sora looked back at the other three. "I…"

"Let's just… just keep going." Donald said.

"Gawrsh. I wonder if this whole world's like this?" Goofy asked aloud.

"I hope it is!" Reimu said excitedly, pushing past the boys into the room. "Wow! It sure lives up to its name!" She spun slowly in a circle, looking at everything in the room. The room itself was cute, pink, and very "home-sweet-home". A fireplace, unlit, was on the wall to their right, and a table and chair were sitting right in the center. On the opposite wall from where they were standing was a very small door.

"Hm? What's with this door?" Reimu asked, peering down at it. "It's way too small for anyone to get in."

"No, you're simply too big." The door replied. Or rather, the doorknob did.

"Huh?!" Donald yelled. "It talks!"

"Must you be so loud? You woke me up." The doorknob grumbled.

"Good morning." Goofy said.

"Good night! I need a bit more sleep." The doorknob replied, and closed its eyes.

"Wait! How can we get small, too?" Sora asked. The doorknob didn't reply. "Hey!" He started knocking on the door.

"Cut it out, cut it out!" The doorknob said exasperatedly. "Why don't you try the bottle… over there?"

"Bottle? There's no-" Reimu stopped as she turned around. When she last looked at the table, it had had nothing on it, but as she looked now, there was a brightly colored bottle with a tag tied to it with the words "DRINK ME" printed neatly onto it. "But that wasn't…" She shrugged, and grabbed it.

"Do you think it's safe?" Sora asked her.

"Well, we won't know until we try!" Donald said, taking the bottle, and handing it over to Goofy. "So here, you try it first!"

"Okay." Goofy opened the bottle and took a big gulp. Instantly he began to get smaller and smaller, until he was about the size of the bottle itself. Sora grabbed the bottle before it crashed to the ground.

"Well, bottoms up I guess." Sora grinned and took a swig of the bottle. He quickly gave it to Donald as he shrank down to where Goofy was standing on the ground, and looked up at Donald and Reimu above him. His grin turned slyer as he decided to tease Reimu. "Hey, Reimu! Better be careful, or I'll be able to look up your-" Instantly he rolled away frantically as Reimu stomped down right next to him.

"Don't even joke." She said in that monotone voice she used when she was not amused. She took the bottle from Donald as he was about to drink and took a small sip compared to Goofy and Sora's swallows. She gave it back as she shrank down to the other two. She didn't stop staring at Sora, making him uncomfortable, even as Donald joined them down on the ground.

"Reimu, I'm sorry, I was just teasing…"

She ignored him and turned around to the doorknob, but Sora noticed she was grinning slightly as she turned, so he knew he was forgiven. The four of them walked back to the doorknob.

"Hello? We're small now! Can we get through?" Donald asked. The doorknob ignored him, obviously awake but terribly pretending to be asleep, with much too loud fake snores. Sora could have sworn it opened one of its eyes just a tad to see if they were still in front of it.

"Fine. We'll just find another path." Reimu said, looking around.

"Wait! I see a crack over there, in the wall, see?" Sora pointed. In the corner of the room was a gigantic bed (of course, it was only gigantic due to their new size), and behind it was a tiny doorway.

"Great!" Goofy said. "We should see where it goes!"

They made their way under the bed and through the doorway, and suddenly found themselves in what looked to be a garden of some kind, with hedges and topiaries and bushes covered in beautiful white roses. There was also sky above them, covered in light grey clouds. They made their way through a heart-shaped hedge gate and found themselves in what looked like a court, though there was no one around. Well, nearly no one around.

"You there!" A gruff voice said behind them. They turned around and looked in shock at a walking playing card walking towards them carrying a large black axe; the card itself was a two of spades. "This area is not open to the public at this time!"

"Sorry!" Sora said. "We didn't know."

"Um," Reimu asked, "What is this place?"

"This is the court of Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts! Here is where she conducts trials and makes law!" The card seemed to be incapable of speaking without shouting. "But Her Majesty is currently away at a croquet match against the Duchess and her cook, so there is no need for anyone to be here in the court or in the Maze Garden itself! Please leave immediately!"

"Okay, okay!" Donald grumbled. "Is there another way outta here than where we came in?"

"Over there," the card pointed, "Is the Lotus Forest! You are permitted to exit through there!"

"Alright then." Sora said. "Let's go."

"Thank you, weird card guy." Reimu curtsied.

* * *

They entered the Lotus Forest. It was dark and the plants were huge. Off in the distance, they could hear what seemed to be girls singing.

"I wonder what that could be?" Reimu asked.

"Let's find out!" Sora said.

"Oh, I wouldn't. It's just some silly flowers, after all~"

The four quickly looked around to see who had spoken. Over on a large stump was a pink and purple striped cat, with a large grin showing many teeth.

"Who are you?" Donald asked.

"Who indeed?" The cat replied. "You're not from around here. I should be asking you~"

"Oh, well we're from another-" Reimu started to say, but Goofy quickly covered her mouth.

"Uh, we're not s'pposed to let people know we're outsiders! That's muddlin'." He whispered.

"Meddling." Donald whispered back to them.

"Meddling, muddling, does it really matter?" The cat asked, suddenly right in the middle of them.

"Ah! How did you-?" Sora said.

"Sight-seeing, are we? Then I have the place for you~" The cat smiled even wider, if that were possible. "Through the forest, past the silly flowers, dodging the shadows, is a little cottage with a garden, home to a puppeteer~" The cat _took its head off_ and started rolling around on it. "There's always a party and there's always guests, whether she invites anyone or not~" The cat rolled in circles. "Why not go and attend? There should be one beginning soon. The festivities have been even more boisterous since even before you a different outsider came to play~"

"A different outsider?" Reimu asked. She looked at Sora, who nodded, seeming to be thinking the same thing. If they were called "outsiders", because they were from another world, then maybe this other "outsider" could be…

Behind them, Donald and Goofy seemed also have that thought.

"Alright! We'll go to this party!" Donald said. "Even if this other outsider isn't the King, who turns down a party?"

"Well, have fun~" The cat said, suddenly disappearing stripe by stripe. "Just be sure not to get lost in the darkness on your way~" It was gone.

"Huh? But it's not _that _dark in here." Reimu said. But she soon saw what the cat had meant, as slowly, the distinct shadows on the ground began moving towards them and rising up into solid bodies.

"Heartless!" Goofy cried. The four of them brought out their weapons and rushed in to attack.

It didn't take long, as there weren't a lot. However, once all the normal Shadows had been dispatched, suddenly two much larger Heartless appeared. They were big, round, and would've been sort of cute if they weren't trying to smash them with their fat bellies.

"Huh? Why aren't my hits working?" Sora cried as he tried to smack the belly of one.

"It works if you hit 'em on the back!" Goofy yelled out.

"Fire! Fire!" Donald yelled as fireball after fireball came out of his staff.

_Wait, I can do that too now, can't I? _Sora thought. "Um… fire?" Out of his Keyblade, a small flame sputtered out. "Fire!" He yelled more confidently, and a fireball like Donald's erupted out of the Key. "Cool!" He said. He launched more fire at the Heartless' backs, and eventually they were destroyed.

"Wow, Sora, that was pretty awesome." Reimu smiled.

"Well, you know." Sora rubbed his nose, pleased with himself.

"Don't forget who made so you could do that in the first place!" Donald grumbled.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks, Donald!"

Donald seemed pleased with that.

"Well, that cat said we need to go through the forest and past some flowers, right?" Reimu asked. "And _they're _the ones singing?"

"I think so." Sora said. They made their way down the path, occasionally defending against small groups of Heartless; while thankfully none of those large ones appeared, newer ones did, bright red and floating around casting fire magic at them. As they kept walking, the singing got louder and louder…

"_Little bread-and-butterflies kiss the tulips, and the sun is like a toy balloon~"_

"Nearly there!" Reimu said, looking eagerly ahead. Sora smiled. Reimu sure did like this place, it seemed.

"_There are get-up-in-the-morning glories, in the golden afternoon~"_

Up ahead, the four of them could see a clearing with much more light than in the rest of the forest. Sora could see Reimu beginning to bounce as she walked. He could understand, of course. He was excited too. It wasn't every day you got to hear flowers sing, after all.

"_There are dizzy daffodils on the hillside, strings of violets are all in tune… Tiger lilies love the dandelions, in the golden afternoon~"_

They reached the clearing, and stopped in their tracks. Before them were giant flowers, and each was singing with lovely voices. A kindly-looking red rose seemed to be conducting them, and on her side was an iris holding what seemed to be glasses (what a flower needed glasses for, none of them could have guessed), daisies, pansies, dandelions, tiger lilies, blue bells, dragonsnaps, lily-of-the-vallies; all singing the song, and none of them seemed to have noticed they had an audience. The four of them stood quietly and listened to them sing.

"_There are dog and caterpillars and a copper centipede; Where the lazy daisies love the very peaceful life they lead... _

_You can learn a lot of things from the flowers, for especially in the month of June, there's a wealth of happiness and romance, all in the golden afternoon~  
All in the golden afternoon, the golden afternoon~"_

The flowers finished singing and bowed to who they thought was no one, but all looked up in shock as Sora, Reimu, Donald and Goofy politely clapped.

"Oh? And who might you be?" The red rose asked.

"Um, hello." Sora said. "Sorry, we didn't mean to interrupt."

"We're just passing through." Donald said.

"Passing through, eh?" The iris asked somewhat suspiciously.

"You betcha!" Goofy replied, not sensing the suspicion.

"We're on our way to a party," Reimu said to the rose, "and we couldn't help hearing you all singing. It was a very nice song."

"Why, thank you dear." The rose said happily. "We take pride in our voices here in this garden."

"What garden are you from?" One of the little pansies next to them asked.

"Garden? Oh, we're not-" Sora started to say, but he was interrupted by a daisy.

"Yes, and what sort of flowers _are_ you?"

The flowers were all looking at them closely.

"Such strange leaves." One of them had grabbed Reimu's arms and was looking at her detached sleeves. "Have you ever seen white leaves before?"

"No" "Never" "Not I" came a chorus all around them.

"And these petals! It's like there's only one!" They started tugging at Reimu's skirt.

"H-hey! Knock it off!" Reimu snapped, slapping all of them away. "Rude!"

She wasn't the only one subject to the flowers' prodding, however. All of them were pulling at Sora, Donald, and Goofy as well.

"What a bristly head! Where's your pollen?" A flower asked, poking Sora's hair.

"P-pollen? Wh- I don't have any pollen!" Sora said uncomfortably.

"Well, what kind of flowers are you, then?" The iris said loudly.

"Now, now, ladies, let's not be rude to our guests…" The rose tried to say, but the other flowers were ignoring her.

"Gee, we're not flowers!" Goofy said.

"Yeah! Isn't it obvious?" Donald said angrily.

"Not flowers?!" The iris cried even louder than before. "Then you must be weeds!"

"Weeds! Weeds!" The other flowers shouted.

"Wha- we're not weeds! We're not even plants!" Reimu said. She marched up to the iris. "Look, we just thought your singing was pretty, okay? We're just passing through!"

"Then get a move on!" The iris leaned in closer to her. "We don't want you here, weeds!"

"Now, now…" The rose tried again, but her words were drowned out by the other flowers' yells of agreement. She gave an apologetic look to the four. "I'm sorry, dears. Thank you for listening to our song, but I'm afraid…"

"It's okay." Sora said to her. "At least one of you has manners, I guess." He turned to the other three. "Come on, guys. Hey, Reimu, come on!"

Reimu was still having a stare-down with the iris. "Tch." She turned to follow the boys, when suddenly she was drenched in water. Two flowers next to the iris had dumped a large leaf full of water onto her. Every flower (with the exception of the rose, who just rubbed her temples with her leaves. Or at least, the flower equivalent of temples) laughed hysterically, pointing at her, some trying to push her out with their vines. Reimu stood absolutely still.

"Reimu!" Sora cried. "C-come on, Reimu, let's just get out of here! These guys don't deserve us even listening to them anymore!"

Reimu stayed stock still, her eyes closed, and her face blank. Then, she did something absolutely terrifying.

She smiled at Donald.

That alone wasn't terrifying. No, what was terrifying was _how _she was smiling. While she looked normal, the air around her suddenly turned sour, as if a terrible aura of rage was being emitted from her.

"Donald."

Donald gulped. The flowers didn't seem to be able to sense the situation, as they just kept laughing and calling out at them.

"Uh, yes?"

"Burn them."

That shut the flowers up.

"Wh-what?" Donald asked, surprised. "I can't-" He quieted down as Reimu slowly pointed at a fallen dead leaf on the ground.

"Then burn that. Show them."

Donald gulped and looked around at the flowers, looking at them with suspicion and- was that a bit of fear? He looked at the large leaf and raised his staff. He might as well, after all. At least scare them. Serves them right.

"Fire!" The staff emitted a fireball that went straight to the leaf, engulfing it in flames. The flowers shrieked as the leaf burned up until there was nothing left. Sora looked at Reimu, who seemed satisfied with her revenge.

"We'll be going now!" Reimu had turned to the flowers, more specifically the iris, and waved cheerfully. "Thanks for letting us listen to you sing, and for being _so pleasant_!" She walked down the path in front of the boys, the flowers cringing away from them as they passed. Sora felt a little bad, since that seemed a little mean, but then again they had been terribly rude to them and did that to Reimu. The guilt went away instantly, though he did look back at the rose who was calming everyone down and gave her an apologetic shrug. To his surprise, the rose bowed her head and seemed to smile a little, as if in thanks for teaching them a lesson.

* * *

[BGM: The Doll Maker of Bucuresti]

The forest had become much, much darker as they went on in silence. Reimu was obviously still angry with those flowers, though at least she had stopped lashing out at every giant blade of grass as they walked with her _gohei_, so she had calmed down a bit. It had gotten harder to see, however. The Heartless kept getting first strikes at them, which had shaken all of them up. Eventually, Donald used fire on his staff but didn't send it out at anything, so they had somewhat of a lantern.

"I'm beginning to wonder if this is really all that worth it." Reimu said after a long period of silence. "Do you guys think maybe that cat just sent us here as a joke?"

"Pretty lame joke." Sora grumbled.

"But he said something about an 'outsider'!" Donald said. "It could be the King!"

"Or our friends." Sora added.

"Er, yeah, them too." Donald shrugged.

"Hey, fellas." Goofy said. "Do ya see that?"

"See what?" Sora and Donald asked.

"Wait…" Reimu said. "Wait, I think I see it too! You mean that light?"

"Yep!" Goofy said happily. "We gotta be almost there!" He and Reimu were pointing down the path, and as Sora and Donald strained their eyes, they too saw it: warm light way far down in the distance.

"Finally!" Sora said. "Hey, let's race for it!"

"Ah, a race, then?" Reimu grinned. "Just like back home."

"Race? No way! It's too dark!" Donald crossed his arms.

"That's what'll make it fun!" Sora laughed. "What about you, Goofy?"

"I'm up for a race if you are!" Goofy smiled. "Come on Donald, it'll be fun!"

"…" He didn't want to admit it, but Donald _was_ attracted to the idea. He had never raced in the dark before, but with these guys, it seemed like it would actually be entertaining. He sighed. "Fine! Let's do it!"

"On your marks!" Reimu said.

"Go!" Sora cried, and the four of them rushed forward. They each ran consistently, sometimes tripping over roots or rocks in the darkness. Sora was leading, followed by Goofy, then Reimu, and finally Donald. Sora smirked to himself. He was used to always losing to Marisa and Riku, but he knew he had a sure chance at winning this race-

Until Reimu literally flew right by him.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Sora yelled at her. He heard her laugh as she sped farther away. Looking past her, however, he saw the light become brighter and bigger, and could hear music and what sounded like laughing and talking. Eventually, he slowed down, having finally caught up to Reimu who was standing at a cute looking gate door. Behind him he heard Goofy and Donald catching up as well, panting as they slowed to a walk.

"I win~" Reimu said, beaming. Sora was going to tell her off for flying, but remembering that earlier event, decided not to. Reimu deserved to feel happy after what those flowers did.

"So, is this the cottage, then?" Donald asked. The four of them looked. Their view was largely obstructed by large hedges, but over the top they could see a little bit of what looked like a roof.

"Must be. The puppeteer's…" Sora said.

"What, do we just knock?" Reimu asked. Sora shrugged. "Well, why not." She went up to the gate and knocked a few times. While the music kept playing, the laughter and talking suddenly quieted down. Reimu looked back at the boys, then stepped back from the gate as the four of them heard what sounded like someone fumbling with a lock. The gate opened.

"Can I help you?"

It was a girl who looked only a little bit older than Sora and Reimu. Her short, blonde hair had a red headband in it, and she looked at them inquisitively with bright blue eyes.

"Hello!" Sora said. "Um, are you the puppeteer? Who lives here?"

The girl stared at him.

"What he's trying to say," Reimu nudged him, "is that we were told to come here by a weird talking cat."

The girl's face softened.

"Oh, that mangy thing. He sent you? Then come in, come in. We're just starting another party." She opened the gate and ushered them all inside. They came into a garden, with a long table filled with guests and covered in all sorts of teapots, cups, platters of food, and various decorations. Bright, warm lanterns hung above from the trees, bathing the area in light. The girl clapped her hands.

"Everyone, we have more guests! Make room."

The four of them took a good look at the people at the table. There was a young boy with green hair and what looked like antennae on his head, looking at them while munching on a cookie; a familiar pink-dressed girl with rabbit ears on her head; a younger girl with long blonde hair with a cute little black bow on her head; and the rest were a large group of very pretty young girls, all moving their chairs around, some bringing in four more for the newcomers to sit in. As he looked closer at them, Sora felt there was something not quite right about them as opposed to the other three sitting at the table, but he was pulled by Reimu to sit down next to her, while Donald and Goofy sat opposite them. The puppeteer sat down at the head of the table.

"Ahem. We are all fellow patrons of this mad tea party celebration now, so introductions must be made." The other guests nodded. "Newcomers first." She looked expectantly at Sora.

"Oh, well, I'm Sora, and this is-"

"I can introduce myself." Reimu hissed under her breath at him. She looked around the table. "My name is Reimu."

"Donald."

"And I'm Goofy!"

That seemed to make the girl happy enough.

"Well, then. As hostess of the party, I'll introduce the rest." She stood up and pointed as she named the other guests off. "That there is Wriggle," she pointed at the green-haired boy, "Tewi," the girl in the pink dress, "London, Dutch, Orleans, Russia, Tibet, Kyoto, Hourai," she pointed at each of the pretty girls, "and Miss Alice." She nodded at the girl with the black bow in her hair.

"How do you do?" Alice asked them.

"And I, as well," the hostess brought her hand to her chest, "am named Alice. Please don't get confused."

"Oh. Okay." Sora shrugged. Alice (the older one) smiled.

"Well then. Now that introductions are out of the way, why don't we get back to where we were?" She clapped, and everyone cheered. Everyone was pouring tea for each other, talking, laughing, and eating sweets (Wriggle was getting honey all over his face). Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy were enjoying themselves as well, and getting to know their fellow partiers. The rabbit girl, Tewi, apologized for landing on Goofy, but she _had _been in a rush. Reimu was drinking every cup of tea she could get her hands on. Sora laughed. It might not be sake, but at least Reimu was getting her wish of drinking in another world. He looked over to the guest next to him; it was one of the pretty girls- Orleans, he think was her name.

"So, uh…" He tried to talk to her, but she wasn't paying him any attention. She was just bouncing in her seat like everyone else, pouring tea into many teacups, occasionally bringing a teacup to her lips. "Um… hello?" Sora asked. Orleans ignored him. In fact, she seemed to be ignoring everything except pouring tea and sometimes taking sips for herself… but wait…

"Huh…?" Sora had glanced into her teacup, only to see that there was no tea in it. Orleans didn't seem to have noticed. She also didn't seem to notice when Sora poked her cheek with his finger only to find it was smooth and hard, like porcelain. "Wh-what?" He looked around the table at the other pretty girls. Watching them closely, he saw that they too were doing various tasks repeatedly- London and Russia looked like they were telling jokes to each other and making each other laugh at first glance, but Sora saw that they were just repeating motions of laughing, moving their hands around as if telling stories, and there was the fact that their mouths weren't moving at all. Russia was pouring tea for the younger Alice, but as soon as she finished she turned away to "talk" to Kyoto, so Alice couldn't talk to her herself. Tibet was just bouncing in her chair, methodically looking left and right, but that was all she was doing. Sora looked over at Reimu, Donald and Goofy; they hadn't seemed to notice that over half of their fellow partiers were dolls. He looked at Wriggle and both Alices- they were busy enjoying themselves with each other. But then, he noticed Tewi staring at him from across the table, a small smile on her face, and her eyes seeming to say _finally noticed, did you?_

"Switch!" Hostess Alice suddenly stood up. Everyone else got up as well, pulling Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy up with them, then quickly moving to different seats. Reimu ended up between both Alices, Donald between Orleans and London, Goofy next to Wriggle, and Tewi had grabbed Sora so they could sit together.

"Wh-what's with this place?" Sora asked her. He had to speak louder than usual, as the music had changed into a different, bouncier, somewhat louder piece.

"Hehe. I saw you lookin', kid." Tewi giggled. "You've figured it out, haven't you? About these girls." She pointed her thumb behind her, where Kyoto was sitting next to her.

"They…they're dolls. Huge dolls. Right?"

Tewi nodded.

"They're Alice's 'friends'. Big Alice, I mean." She sighed. "Man, I'm still not used to having two Alices around."

"Not used? You mean…" Sora gasped. "Is- Is little Alice-"

"She's not from around here." Tewi said. "She came down that rabbit hole just like you four did, though she came quite a bit before you guys. She's already been through a lot here in Wonderland. Nearly got her head lopped off by that crazy queen, too. Somehow found her way through the forest to here, without a scratch! Pretty surprising," she crossed her arms, "considering all those weird monsters."

"Weird- oh, you mean the Heartless."

"Huh? You know what they're called?" Tewi looked at him interestedly.

"Oh, uh…" Sora didn't really know how that 'rabbit hole' worked and didn't how much he should say about them being from different worlds. But what about little Alice? Could she really be from another world as well? To his relief, Tewi didn't seem to really care, grabbing herself a cookie.

"But anyway," she said, talking with her mouth full, "Big Alice is actually pretty lonely, so she spends her time making all these dolls, and then she moves 'em around and has parties with them. When I first met her, I felt super bad for her, so I found Wriggle and now we go to her parties all the time. And then today, that little Alice showed up, and big Alice has been really happy for some reason!" She munched on another cookie. "I don't know why. But I think she really likes little Alice for some reason. Maybe because they're both named Alice?"

Sora thought for a moment.

"Do you think… it could be because little Alice isn't from here?"

Tewi stopped mid-chew.

"You know what? That might be it!" She looked over at big Alice. "Now that you mention it, doesn't she seem really happy to be talking to your friend? She looked just like that when little Alice told her she came from above the rabbit hole. And since you guys came from above, too…"

Sora looked as well. Sure enough, big Alice was listening to Reimu intently, occasionally glancing over at Donald and Goofy interestedly, and even looked over in Sora's direction. She noticed him looking at her, and smiled before paying attention to Reimu again.

_. . . _He thought. _…She's really weird. It's mean to think like that, I know- but… _He looked at the dolls beside him. Didn't Tewi say that Alice made them move herself? But, seven dolls was a lot to control at one time, right? And how was she doing it while busy pouring herself more tea? He stared at her. There really was something really weird about this Alice in Wonderland.

"Yo, don't stare!" Tewi nudged him. "You'll weird her out."

_I'm not the one doing the weird stuff… _Sora turned his head away. He looked at Donald, laughing with the dolls (but why? Didn't he notice they weren't actually saying anything?), Goofy was having a great time with Wriggle (at least he was an actual person, even with those weird antennae), and looked again over at Reimu and Alice, who were bouncing with the music. All of them seemed not to have any worries at all in the world.

Come to think of it…

…Just how long had they been here, anyway?

Sora tried to think. It wasn't like he had a watch or anything. But for some reason, it felt like they had been sitting here for a very long time, and yet also for a very short while. As if sensing his thoughts, Alice once again stood up and yelled,

"Switch!"

Everyone scrambled to find a new seat. Reimu sat with Wriggle and Tewi, Donald between some more dolls (Sora had forgotten which name went with which doll), and Goofy next to little Alice. Sora, however, made an effort to sit down next to big Alice, who had moved into the big pink chair again. She turned to him and smiled.

"Hello. Reimu was just telling me about you."

"Oh, really?" Sora looked over at Reimu. She was busy eating honey with Wriggle. He noticed Tewi looking at him intently, but turned back to Alice. "About how cool I am?"

Alice laughed.

"Sort of. Mainly how you're such good friends." She sipped some tea. "Sounds like you're really close."

"Oh, well, she's one of my best friends!" Sora said, his eyes trailing down to her hands. Was it just him, or were all of her fingers twitching slightly? He snapped back to her face. She hadn't seemed to notice him looking at them. "We're on an adventure right now with Donald and Goofy."

"Yes, she was talking about that." She frowned. "Wouldn't really give me details, though. Is it a secret mission or something?"

"You could call it that." Sora shrugged. "This place is the first…" he quickly thought of a way to not exactly say _world_, "…place we've come to. We're looking for some more of our friends."

"…" Alice looked at him thoughtfully. "…You seem to have a lot of friends."

"Well, you do too, right?" Sora grinned. "You've got Tewi and Wriggle and that weird cat. Don't you have other friends, too?"

Alice stared at him, her expression blank.

"…They're sitting right here."

"Oh, well, I mean," Sora said, shrinking back a little as Alice stared, "besides your dolls."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. With a rather obvious twitch of Alice's fingers, all the dolls instantly turned their heads to Sora. The music abruptly stopped. Reimu, Donald, Goofy, and little Alice looked over at them, confused, and Wriggle and Tewi had looked at each other, wide-eyed, and slowly inched their chairs away from the table.

"These are my friends." Alice said, her eyes not moving from Sora. "They have parties with me and help me do work around the house."

"B-but, in the end, you're the one controlling them all, aren't you?" Sora asked. "I mean, I can see you moving them with your fingers. How are you doing that, anyway?" But he stopped speaking as he noticed her fingers had stopped twitching, as her hands were curled tightly into fists and were shaking. "Oh, oh no!" He regretted everything he had said. "No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset-"

"Of course I'm upset." Alice said, her face still void of emotion. "You have insulted my friends and, by proxy, me. I am afraid that I am going to have to ask you to leave."

"Now hang on!" Reimu said, standing up and slamming her hands down on the table. "What's going on? What did you do, Sora?"

"I just… I just asked about her dolls, and-"

"Dolls? Are you saying these girls," she looked around at them, "are really just dolls?" She looked at Alice. "I'm impressed. I totally thought they were real people. No wonder that cat called you 'the puppeteer'."

"They're….not….dolls…." Alice's whole body was shaking now. Her eyes darted from one person to another, shaking her head. "These are….my friends…." She raised her voice. "They've always been my friends here! How dare you compare them to lifeless toys!"

"Oh, my goodness…" Little Alice was visibly frightened. "U-um, Miss Alice, please calm down! We're not trying to say anything of the sort!"

"Hey, Alice." Tewi stood up from her chair. "These guys don't know you as well as I do, and they don't understand how often you're all alone without anyone around, and-"

"Shut up." Alice glared at her. Her face had broken its emotionlessness, and was contorted with rage. "You're excused as well from this party. All of you. Go away!" She stood up herself and moved her arms around quickly, and the dolls got up in unison and started grabbing and pushing everyone away from the table and towards the gate.

"Hey!" "Stop it!" "Cut it out!" "Oh, dear!"

"Alice, this is stupid! Calm down already!" Tewi yelled. But Alice wasn't listening. She had gone into some sort of trance, glaring at them all but seeming to not actually see them, muttering something fast under her breath, most likely commands or a spell to move the dolls.

"This is crazy!" Sora yelled. He was being roughly shoved by Dutch. "Knock it off!" He summoned the Keyblade and spun around, whacking Dutch halfway across the garden, which also effectively broke Alice's trance.

"_How dare you?!" _She hissed at him. She only got more and more livid as Reimu, Donald and Goofy pulled out their weapons as well, beating back the dolls who did not know what to do; or rather, Alice did not know what to make them do.

"Look, Alice!" Sora said, lowering the Keyblade and taking a step towards her. "I'm really, really sorry I said that stuff. I didn't know how much these do… _friends _mean to you." Alice was staring wide-eyed at him, not making a move at all, even with her fingers.

"Hey, we understand. You're really lonely, right?" Reimu said, coming closer to her as well. "There's nothing to be ashamed of. I really think what you do is really cool. I mean, you fooled all us, and you were controlling _seven _at once! That's a pretty amazing feat!"

Alice slowly lowered her arms, and her gaze. The dolls all simultaneously fell limp to the ground. Tewi sighed a breath of relief, apparently expecting much worse from Alice.

"If ya like, we'll be your friends, too!" Goofy said cheerily. "And we'll come visit ya a lot so you're not so alone all the time!"

"Sure!" Donald nodded.

"I…" Alice spoke to the ground. "…Wow. I'm such an idiot." She closed her eyes. "…I really ruined this party, didn't I?"

"Oh, not at all!" Little Alice went up to her and held her hands in her own. "_I've _been having a lovely time. We're friends too now, aren't we?"

Alice looked down at her, and smiled. "Yes. Yes, I suppose we are." She turned to Tewi. "Sorry. I've never listened to you when you said things like this."

"Aw, as long as you've stopped actin' all crazy, I don't even care~" Tewi grinned at her. She pulled Wriggle along with her back to the table. "Let's have a fun party- just us! You can leave the girls there. Um, they're taking a rest." She winked.

Alice smiled and nodded, and turned to Sora and co. "I hope I haven't scared you off from finishing the party."

"Of course not!" Reimu said happily. "More tea! That's enough for me!"

* * *

In time, they did manage to finish the party. Wriggle decided he should get home to the other fireflies (which greatly confused Sora and co.- the boy was a _firefly?!_), and everyone else was helping Alice put the chairs and cups and pots away neatly. Alice used her dolls to do most of the work, though, like actually putting them away in her house.

"How many dolls can you control at once?" Donald asked her.

"Oh, well, it depends." She replied. "If they're big ones like these, seven is really as much as I can handle while making each act individually. If they're small ones, I can control around 20. At least, that's as many as I have at the moment."

"Amazing!" Donald said, clearly impressed.

"What do you control them for?" Reimu asked, sitting down on the grass next to Tewi and little Alice.

"Oh, chores around the house, practice with magic, spell cards-"

"Wait wait wait! Did you say _spell cards_? Like these?" Reimu summoned her blank cards. Alice and Tewi looked at them, very surprised.

"Ah? You can use spell cards as well?" Alice asked, smiling.

"Wow! Me, Alice, and Wriggle are the only ones who I know here can use 'em!" Tewi said.

"All of you?" Reimu said excitedly. "So you guys know how to make them, right? I just learned how to use them, and now I want to make some of my own! Could you teach me?"

"Um, what are spell cards?" Little Alice asked.

"They're fun!" Tewi said.

"They're tools." Alice said. She looked at Reimu's cards. "Only one, hm? And you didn't actually make this one?" She pointed at Homing Amulet.

"No. It just came to me like that."

"Hm." She looked at the cards for a bit, then smiled and looked back up at Reimu. "Very well. I'll teach you all about spell cards. Everything from how many you should have to making useful ones to how to dodge attacks."

"Oh man, thank you so… 'dodge attacks'?" Reimu looked at her suspiciously.

"But of course. You can't fight a spell card. You can only either manage to weaken the user enough that the card temporarily breaks-"

"That's called 'capturing a spell card'!" Tewi interrupted.

"Yes, or, you can dodge the bullets until the internal timer in the cards runs out and the card shuts down. Of course, if you want to be able to weaken the user, you'll need to be able to dodge well in the first place." She smiled somewhat maliciously. "You want to learn about spell cards? Then let's do it. I'll take the honor of being your first spell card battle partner."

Sora, Donald and Goofy looked at Reimu worriedly. She looked at them, and winked.

"Sure, let's do it! The faster I learn this, the faster I can make my own! Plus, I haven't seen any spell cards besides my one, and it's not even that fancy!"

"Wait!" Tewi said. "Alice, aren't you forgetting one sort of crucial detail that she needs?"

"Hm? Well, since she has the cards in the first place, isn't it a given that she can?"

"Can what?" Reimu asked the two of them.

"Why, fly, of course. Spell card battles are done in the air."

* * *

**What's this? Reimu's not the only one who can fly? Inconceivable!**

**Hello everyone, it's me, Frost, and I do not think that word means what I think it means.  
**

**This is by far the biggest and most I've written for a chapter for anything! 6,694 words not including these author notes? That is way too much. But then again, a lot happened this chapter, didn't it?  
**

**Sisterofscarletdevil- No, PC-98 Alice and Alice are not two different people! You seem to be confused. The Alices that are here are, as more clearly described in this chapter, Alice Margatroid and the original Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Sorry for the confusion!  
**

**Also, before anyone says anything: I am perfectly aware Wriggle is not, in fact, a boy. In an unrelated note, my headcanon voice for Wriggle is Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4. (No one cares, Frost)  
**

**I hope you all enjoyed my changes to the original Wonderland in the game! This will be a regular occurrence for me to add much more things from the original movies into this story! I am so excited.**

**As always, comments and questions are appreciated!  
**

**Next time: Spell card battle! A trial for a firefly! Playing card battle! Stay tuned!  
**


	8. The Queen Who Played with People's Heads

"Are you sure this'll be okay?" Sora asked Reimu, worried. Donald, Goofy, little Alice, and Tewi were sitting on some chairs to the side of the garden, which were the only furniture out there, as the dolls had successfully completely cleared any trace of the mad tea party. Alice was in the middle of the garden, looking over a black book filled with what looked exactly like Reimu's cards, but with different writing in different colors.

"I'll be fine!" Reimu said. "What're you doing, worrying so much? This isn't like you."

"I just…" Sora looked down. "I just don't really get these spell card things. I've watched you use yours, and I still don't really understand! And now we're learning that more people can just fly like you can, and I just…" He sighed and shook his head. "I just don't get it. This is so weird."

"Oh, yes. You're smacking around things with a giant key, shooting fireballs with it, and fighting shadowy monsters that steal people's hearts, not to mention traveling with a talking duck and dog, and the fact that I can fly and use magical cards or whatever they are is the thing that weirds you out the most." Reimu grinned. "We've been in a spaceship and listened to rude giant flowers singing, and the thing that strikes you the most odd is the thought of girls flying around shooting bullets out of cards at each other."

Sora gave her the most unamused expression he could muster, but both he and Reimu burst into laughter.

"Ha… Yeah, I guess you're right. What am I being all weird for? Sorry." He frowned. "I just don't want you to get hurt. It's one thing with the Heartless, but aren't these huge bullets being shot at you?"

"Excuse me. But if you're worried about that, then don't be." Alice had come up to them. "Danmaku is non-lethal. Oh, it'll hurt if you get hit, but this'll be in a controlled environment. I'll be using my easy-level cards for this, so if she even gets hit, it won't hurt as much." She smiled at Reimu. "Are you ready?"

"Sure am!" Reimu nodded excitedly. She winked at Sora. "I'll be fine. Just you watch at how cool I'm looking, okay?"

"Yeah!" Sora ran over to a chair between Donald and Goofy. With the spectators all seated and ready, Alice nodded at Reimu, and slowly lifted into the air as if a puppet on a string herself.

"Ah…" Reimu said, her eyes growing wide. Though she now knew that Alice, Tewi, and even Wriggle were capable of flight like her, it was amazing to actually see it for herself. "So that's what it looks like to someone else…"

Alice giggled. "Well? Are you coming up too? The forest air is quite lovely."

"Yeah!" Reimu lifted up as well. It was an awful lot nicer to just fly for the sake of flying rather than in the heat of battle, though she knew that was about to change. The two of them floated up until Alice looked around and stopped.

"This should be good enough. This is a nice clear area, free from too many branches jutting out in the dark." She looked down at the spectators. "How are you all doing down there?"

Reimu looked down as well, and was taken aback. They looked so tiny down there! How were they going to see up here where it wasn't as well lit? Alice seemed to sense her feelings, as she giggled again.

"Oh, don't worry. It's not us that spectators watch spell card battles for." She opened her book. "This is my grimoire. I keep all my spell cards in here- I can't just summon them at will like you can." She flipped through the pages until she reached the section she was looking for. "Ah, here we are. 'Easy mode'. These will be perfect for a beginner like you." She took one out. "Alright, get out that one of yours."

Reimu nodded and summoned Homing Amulet. Alice nodded.

"Good. Now, this is your first time, so don't get too upset if things don't go the way you want them to."

"Eh? What are you talking about?" Reimu smiled. "I fully intend to 'capture' all of your cards."

[BGM: Doll Judgment ~ The Girl who Played with People's Shapes]

"Oh? Such bold words from a fairy-level novice like you!" Alice smirked. "Sorry shrine maiden, but your two-colored powers are a mere twenty-eight-point-five-seven-one-four percent as powerful as mine!" She lifted her spell card above her head. "Blue Sign:「Benevolent French Dolls -Easy-」!" Suddenly, she was surrounded by four of her smaller dolls. They spun around her, and white bullets began to shoot from them, then with another spin the bullets split into more, but colored red. The bullets quickly came at Reimu, who could only think to drop straight down, then rocket back up through the bullets, just grazing them.

"Ah! Good first try! But you want to move more naturally, like this." Alice called out to her, flying around leisurely as her dolls continued to circle her, shooting out bullets at Reimu. Reimu heard cheers from below, and looked down to see her tiny friends up out of their chairs, gazing up at the spectacle above. Of course- from their perspective, it must look like a beautiful pattern of color. She was jolted back to the matter at hand when a bullet stung right into her chest, a sharp, intense pain going all throughout her body. She was about to cry out, but suddenly the pain vanished.

"You can't just look down, you silly miko!" Alice laughed. Her dolls had ceased firing. "The danmaku is still here! You must always watch all sides of yourself, or you'll be trapped between them! That wasn't too pleasant, was it? Lucky for you I'm using an easy-level card, or the pain would have stayed with you longer before going away." She crossed her arms and nodded. "Want to keep going?"

"Of course!" Reimu said. Before Alice could resume her fire, Reimu quickly lifted her own card high above her head. "I already told you! I'll capture every card you throw at me! 「Homing Amulet」!" This time, instead of the card itself splitting into the yin yang orbs, the orbs themselves just appeared at Reimu's sides. _Must be getting used to this, _she thought. She flew around the red bullets, her homing amulets going straight at Alice. She stopped floating leisurely and became active, dodging Reimu's fire easily. "No fair!" Reimu yelled, grazing more bullets. "Aren't those supposed to just hit you?"

"Maybe if I wasn't used to dodging fire myself!" Alice called back. "If you're going to capture this card, you'd better think of a better strategy than just dodging my dolls' danmaku. The timer's going~"

Reimu thought hard and fast. _Eh… This is a lot harder than just fighting the Heartless. This is a real opponent… But she's right- I won't be able to hit her while keeping my own distance… _And then it hit her. _Of course. _She smirked. _I just need to stop keeping my distance._ She willed herself to go as fast as she felt comfortable, and flew straight into the barrage of red in front of her.

* * *

"Wow! They really are somethin', aren't they?" Goofy said excitedly, watching the battle above with a huge smile on his face.

"It's very pretty!" Little Alice said, her eyes wide, watching the patterns older Alice's dolls were making.

"What kind of magic is this, anyway?" Donald asked Tewi.

"Eh? Who knows? Just magical magic, I guess." Tewi shrugged. "Spell cards' powers come from the user's own abilities. Like, Alice is a Magician herself, so obviously she's got more options of power to put into 'em."

"Magician?" Sora asked. "A magician and a puppeteer? How many jobs does she have?"

"Uh, I don't think you get it." Tewi scratched her ears. "Alice is literally a Magician. Like how I'm a rabbit and Wriggle's a firefly and you're a duck," she pointed at Donald, then to Sora, "and you're a human. Alice is a Magician."

"Wait!" Sora gaped at her. "Alice- she's not- What? But…"

Tewi laughed. "Hehehe! We're all youkai! Yeah, we look like you humans, but we're anything but!" She rolled onto her back to watch the two in the air. "That's why we don't listen to that fat old hag queen. The rest of Wonderland fears her and listens to her, but not us. We're higher than that." She grinned.

"You…kai…?" Sora asked. "What's a youkai?"

"Hold on!" Goofy looked over at them. "Y'mean like Nazrin? She's a youkai, isn't she, Donald?"

"Yes." Donald nodded. "Sora, a youkai is a kind of monster."

"Monster? Like the Heartless?"

"No way!" Tewi scoffed. "We can think for ourselves. We're just better in every way than everything else."

"What." Sora frowned at her.

"Hehehehe! Kidding!" Tewi laughed, bringing herself to an upright sitting position. "The truth is, the reason we don't listen to the queen isn't because we're youkai. We don't listen to her because we think she's just full of it!" She laughed again. "But yeah. Alice looks like a human, but she's not. Normally you can tell when someone's really a youkai. I don't blame you for not knowing, though. But now you do, so there's no excuse for you not noticing it if you ever meet another one!" She rolled onto her back again. "Ooh! Looks like she really did it!"

They all looked up. Alice's spell card had disappeared, and they could just make out the two girls' figures in the darkness.

* * *

"I'll admit. I didn't expect you to actually capture that." Alice said, pulling a card out of her grimoire. "Good job! Your first spell card and you successfully captured it!"

"Thanks." Reimu smiled, swelling with pride. "Alright, what's up next?"

"Scarlet Sign: 「Red-Haired Dutch Dolls –Easy-」!"

Six fittingly red-haired dolls appeared, flying around Alice rather than circling her, and began to shoot out teal and purple bullets at Reimu. Reimu grinned and flew towards Alice again, letting her homing amulets go at her. Alice expertly dodged them, but winced a little as a few did manage to hit her. Reimu was having an easier time with this spell card than the last, as there were larger gaps to fly through and easily graze the bullets. Alice frowned as Reimu kept hitting her, more in contemplation than in pain.

"Hm. You're a natural at this. Maybe this card is _too _easy." She snapped her fingers and the dolls and bullets vanished.

"Hey!" Reimu cried. "I was having fun!"

"If you were having fun," Alice smiled, "then you're not being challenged enough. Here, let me try…" She flipped to a different section of the grimoire. "Here we are! This should have a better incentive." She pulled the card out and raised it above her head. "White Sign: 「Chalk White Russian Dolls」!" Suddenly, Reimu was met with dolls from all sides, each shooting out way more bullets than the spell card before.

"What the heck?" She yelled at Alice, dodging the increased fire from all directions. "This doesn't look like an easy-level spell card!"

"Oh, that's because it's a hard-level." Alice smiled. "Card power goes from easy, to normal, to hard, and finally to lunatic levels of power." She flew around leisurely once again. "I thought you would like a better challenge." She grinned wide. "Now, try to capture this one without getting hit too much. Hard-level bullets hurt a lot more and a lot longer than easy-level ones."

"Alice Margatroid you are a cruel and inhumane girl." Reimu said, and focused herself on both dodging all the bullets and getting close enough to Alice to let her amulets do the most damage. Hard-level turned out to really live up to its name, as she kept getting grazed herself by the bullets, holding in her cries as she felt as if she were being cut by knives all over her body. "_Alice Margatroid you are a cruel and inhumane girl!_" She yelled at her through the bullets. Hearing Alice's light laughter only made her even madder. _Alright. That's the last time you laugh, _she thought. She warily watched the bullets, and noticed that they _were _in the same pattern as the easy-level card; there was just more bullets in each clump. She calmed herself and paid attention to each clump surrounding her, and had a much easier time getting through them then she had when she had just been flying around wildly. She directed all her power into the amulets to hit Alice, and as she got closer and closer to her she saw Alice's eyes get wider and wider in shock.

"…" Alice's teeth were clenched as she tried to get away from Reimu's amulets to no avail. How could this be, though? Wasn't she an absolute greenhorn at this? Why was this red-white picking up techniques so quickly? Even Alice herself hadn't gotten used to spell cards until a few actually serious battles with Tewi and Wriggle when they were all younger, and she had an advantage being a skilled Magician. Her thoughts were interrupted by her bullets suddenly disappearing and the sound of her card breaking; Reimu had once again successfully captured it.

"…Hey. You said you only learned about spell cards very recently, yes?"

"Huh? Yeah. I had no idea these things even existed until earlier tonight." Reimu frowned. "Hey, what time is it, anyway? So much has been going on lately, I have no idea-" She stopped as Alice held her hand to motion her to be quiet.

"I have no reason to doubt you. In fact, I _don't_ doubt you. I'm truly very impressed with you." She shook her head. "But I don't get it. Capturing easy spell cards is very, well, easy for a beginner. That's who easy cards are for, after all. But…" She flew up to Reimu and looked intently into her eyes. "You, a complete newbie, just got through a hard-level spell card with no major injuries. Even I had trouble with hard spells my first time." She crossed her arms. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?" Reimu asked. She put her hands on her hips. She didn't see what the big deal was. Wasn't the whole point of this to show her how to do spell card battles? Well, she was learning and succeeding, wasn't she? What was so bad about her being a fast learner? She always had been. It was something she prided herself in, ever since she was a little girl. Whereas Marisa always won everything, Reimu always managed to get how to do things instantly. It was really the only way she managed to do anything, since otherwise she was just so damn _lazy_.

"Are you human?"

Whatever she had been expecting Alice to ask, it certainly wasn't that.

"W-what? What are you talking about? Of course I'm human! I'm as human as you are!"

* * *

"Gawrsh. They sure have been talkin' for a while." Goofy said, looking up into the darkness at the girls above. "I wonder about what."

"Eh, probably Alice giving her some pointers." Tewi said, rolling around on the grass. "She managed to capture that hard-level spell card, but I could tell she was having a bunch of trouble with it."

"But she did manage to get it, though!" Sora grinned. "She seems to really get how to do this spell card stuff!" _Just like me and fighting with the Keyblade._

"Hm. I think she's just gotten lucky. Probably because I'm here." Tewi laughed. "I'm pretty lucky to be around."

"…" Younger Alice was looking down at the ground.

"Whatsa matter, Alice?" Goofy asked.

"Oh, it's nothing." Alice smiled at him. "Well… I just…"

"What is it?" Donald asked.

"Oh, I suppose I'm just overwhelmed by everything that's happened to me today." She shrugged. "I fell down a rabbit hole, grew big, shrank down, met that horrible queen, had a lot of parties with all of you, and now I'm watching girls actually flying and making such pretty patterns in the sky…" She looked back up into the darkness of the forest above them. "I wish such things could happen back home. It's dreadfully ordinary there. I'd like to fly around like Miss Alice, and be able to talk to my own cat."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy exchanged glances. Hadn't that cat told them that there was another outsider besides them? It had to be the young Alice.

"Hey, Alice. What's your home like?" Sora asked. He made sure not to say 'world', since Tewi was right there.

"Boring." Alice sniffed. "It's all lessons and ordinary things and you must be proper at all times or your elder sister tells you off!" She sighed. "It is a lot more peaceful than here, though. Things aren't always so fast-paced and spontaneous like things are here. I suppose if I really thought about it, I prefer living back home." She looked over at Tewi. "Um, I don't mean any offense."

"Huh? What's to offend?" Tewi giggled, but quickly frowned as her ears twitched suddenly. "Who's there?" She called, quickly turning to the garden's gate. Sora's eyes widened as he saw a huge swarm of fireflies flying into the garden. Tewi got up and went up to them, the bugs flying around her wildly, blinking rapidly. "Now, now! Calm down you little cockroaches!" She said, and the bugs instantly calmed down, seemingly offended.

"Tewi? What's going on?" Donald asked.

"Hold your horses, I'm askin' them." Tewi replied. One of the fireflies began flashing its light quickly, while Tewi nodded slowly, somehow knowing what it was telling her. "…Okay, lemme get it straight in case I misread you." She crossed her arms. "You're saying something happened to Wriggle?"

The fireflies all flashed their lights brightly.

"And it has something to do with those monsters?"

Again, more flashing.

"And someone else is involved? Who?"

The fireflies floated into a formation shaped like a heart. Tewi's face paled.

"…Ah." She turned on her heels towards the others, and instantly shot up into the sky.

* * *

"Wow. 'Youkai', huh." Reimu was looking at Alice in a whole new light after learning that she was not, in fact, a human. "I'm learning all sorts of new things today."

"Well, at least you're learning it sooner rather than later. There are lots of youkai who would get extremely offended if you thought they were human, and they would probably try to kill and eat you." Alice was busily flipping through her grimoire, looking at actual spells and writing rather than spell cards. "For some reason I can't find my section on spell card ideas. Maybe I took it out and put it in the house." She closed the book, and looked up at Reimu. "Shall we head down? I'm sure the others are getting awfully bored with nothing to watch."

"Sure." Reimu shrugged. "I'm kind of done with dodging things for a bit." She grinned. The two of them slowly began to descend when they heard Tewi's yelling.

"Alice! Alice! Big trouble! We've got BIG, BIG TROUBLE!" Tewi flew right into Alice, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. "Huge trouble! ENORMOUS trouble! Trouble as big as that old hag's head!"

"Tewi- TEWI! Cut it out!" Alice angrily shook free of Tewi's grip. "What is it? What's happened?"

"It- it's Wriggle!" Tewi said, her eyes huge. "Apparently she never made it home to the other fireflies and the reason- the reason-" she gulped.

"Uh, what's going on?" Reimu asked. "Tewi, what's happened to Wriggle? And did you say _she_?"

Tewi ignored her, still looking wildly at Alice. "The old hag's accusin' her of stealing her tarts AND 'attempted theft of her heart'! They're having a trial _right now _and if we don't do something-"

"Her head's as good as gone." Alice finished, her face turning as pale as Tewi's.

"Uh," Reimu started, but the two girls continued to ignore her.

"Alright. Tewi, we need to get there _now_. Reimu?" She looked over at her. "You and your friends should come as well. The more we have on our side, the better it'll be for us." She dropped down quickly to the ground below. Reimu, still unsure of what the hell was going on, followed suit, along with Tewi.

"Hey, hey! What's happening?" Sora ran to them as they landed. "What's wrong? You guys?" He watched, confused, as Alice ran into her house, and came right back out again, followed by her seven life-sized dolls. She closed the door, locked it, and flipped open her grimoire, muttering under her breath. Sora looked over at Reimu.

"I have no idea." She shook her head.

"Hey, Alice! What's going on? We'd like to know!" Donald said angrily. "It's rude to keep friends in the dark like this!"

Tewi sighed and turned to them.

"Man, sorry. You know Wriggle? Well, she's been captured by the Queen of Hearts and her court, and if we don't get to her right now she could very well lose her head for crimes she didn't commit!"

"The Queen of Hearts?" Younger Alice said, bringing her hands to her mouth. "Not that horrible woman!"

"Wriggle's a girl?" Goofy asked.

"Yes and yes!" Tewi rolled her eyes at Goofy's question. "Alice! You done yet?"

"One moment." Alice replied, not taking her eyes off her door. Suddenly, the door flashed white, and unlocked itself. "There we are." Alice opened the door, and Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy were surprised that the door no longer led to the inside of Alice's home, but to a familiar pink room.

"Huh?!" Sora cried. "But…"

"What great magic!" Donald said.

"I use this when I don't want to deal with the forest and those flowers." Alice smiled, pleased with Donald's words. "But no time! We need to get to Wriggle _now_."

"Right!" Everyone agreed, and rushed through the door.

* * *

"Court is now in session!" The old rabbit said breathlessly after he was finished playing his trumpet.

"…" Wriggle Nightbug stood, slightly shaking, gripping the podium she was at tightly. She had given up on trying to just fly away; she didn't know what those weird monsters had done to her when they attacked her, but now she was unable to lift off the ground, and even worse, she was stuck here with these card morons and the old hag. If only she hadn't let them take away her emergency spell cards! Now the old hag was surely going to make up some stupid false accusation to have her executed.

"Her majesty, the Queen of Hearts presiding!" The rabbit declared, and the cards surrounding the entire garden straightened up and saluted. Wriggle glared up at the fat queen sitting on her throne, at the tiny king next to her on a much smaller throne, and at the various residents of Wonderland who had come hearing of a trial and were eagerly waiting for an execution. Vultures, the lot of them, including two actual vultures in what Wriggle begrudgingly thought were very nice hats.

"The girl is the culprit. There's no doubt about it. And the reason is…" The Queen took a deep breath, and everyone leaned in, in anticipation of her next words. "…Because I say so, that's why!" Everyone clapped and gleefully shouted words of agreement.

"Oh, come on!" Wriggle cried angrily.

"Well? Have you anything to say in your defense?" The Queen leered at her, as did the audience and cards.

"Look, you old ha-" Wriggle stopped herself. There was no point in making things worse for herself. "…Ah, excuse my rudeness." She had to stop herself from grimacing at her faux politeness. "Your grace, I have done absolutely nothing wrong. I am but a mere firefly, and I don't really have any reason to do anything against you, and I definitely don't have the power to-"

"Lies!" A card, the five of clubs, stepped forward. "We know for a fact you are a regular of the mad tea parties of the Magician, and we confiscated the weapons you use! You are the culprit!" The audience clapped, and the Queen gave a warm nod of approval to the card, who bowed and stepped back.

"Those are only for emergencies! I would never use them against my queen!" Wriggle cried, hoping she sounded sincere, because she sure didn't mean it. "Please, people of the court, believe me, I'm innocent! I-" She was drowned out by the jeers of the crowd.

"You are nothing of the sort!" The Queen declared. "There is no doubt about it. As I returned here from my time with the Duchess, my guard and I were attacked in the forest. We chased the perpetrators and found you with them!"

"Because I was getting attacked by them too!" Wriggle yelled.

"Of course, you would say that!" Another card, the seven of diamonds, called out. "It is no secret you mad tea partiers are against our lovely ruler! You were probably telling the monsters to attack us as your idea of a joke!"

"But I wasn't!" Wriggle stomped the ground with her foot. "I wasn't I wasn't I wasn't! How many times do I gotta say it until you get it in your stupid fat heads?!"

The audience gasped and 'ooh'ed.

"Your words mean nothing!" The Queen cried dramatically. "The court finds the defendant…" Once again, she took a deep breath, and everyone leaned in, in anticipation. "Guilty as charged! For crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart…" She pointed a heart-topped staff at Wriggle. "Off with her head!"

"Wh- no way!" Wriggle yelled. Desperately, she tried to lift off the ground again; nothing. She frantically jumped up and down, trying to fly away, but the cards closed in on her and grabbed her by the arms. "N-noooooo!"

"There's no point yelling." The King piped up. "Your fate is sealed. You are the culprit, after all. Right, dear?" He looked over at the Queen, who lovingly nodded at him.

"YOU'VE GOT THAT WRONG!" A boy's voice called out.

Everyone gasped and turned around, looking at the other end of the garden. Running towards the crowd of cards was a group of uninvited guests, but all had familiar faces to Wriggle. She smiled wide as her despair quickly turned into hope.

* * *

Sora had been the first to get to the garden, and the first to see Wriggle's sentence of execution. However, he was not the first to reach the crowd of cards surrounding Wriggle; that was Alice and Tewi, who were both angrily and easily pulling the cards away to get to their dear friend. The audience of the court was all hooting and watching the spectacle entertained, and the old rabbit and King were looking helplessly at the Queen, unsure of what to do. The Queen herself was literally red with rage.

"You! How DARE you interfere with my court!" She screamed at Alice and Tewi. She looked over at Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy, narrowing her eyes. "Who are you?" Then she noticed little Alice. "You again!" She yelled. "Another criminal avoiding their rightfully given execution!"

"Her trial's over, you old frog!" Tewi glared up at her. "It doesn't count for her anymore!"

"As is this one." Alice (the elder) said, crossing her arms and twiddling her fingers. The seven life-sized dolls she had brought with them surrounded her, Tewi, and Wriggle, protecting them from the cards trying to grab at Wriggle. "I don't particularly care about your hobbies of execution, but you made a terrible mistake." She floated up and calmly looked the enraged woman straight in the eyes. "You tried to steal one of my precious friends away from me." She made to open her grimoire. "And that is something I can _not_ forgive."

"Wait! Don't!" Everyone turned to Reimu, who had reached out towards Alice, her hand outstretched. She looked around at everyone staring at her, and slowly put her arm down. "Um. I don't think there's any reason to make things any worse than they already are, right?"

Sora nodded fervently. "Um, your highness? Uh, we… we demand a diplomatic discussion about this!"

The audience once again 'ooh'ed, and looked eagerly at the Queen, who looked confused, but at least had returned to her normal shade of skin. Alice stared Sora, shrugged, and slowly floated back down to Tewi, Wriggle, and the dolls.

"What are you doing?" Donald whispered angrily to Sora. "Do you want your head gone too?"

"Now, Donald, I think he's onta somethin'." Goofy said. "Go on, you two." He nudged them to the podium where Wriggle had stood only a little while ago.

"Who are you?" The Queen asked them. "I've never seen you before."

"Um, well, I'm Sora, your majesty." Sora said.

"My name is Reimu, ma'am." Reimu curtsied. "We're…" She looked at Sora.

"Travelers!" Sora nodded. "We come from a land… uh… let's just say far away from here." Behind him, he heard Donald groan. He ignored him. "But we've made friends with Wriggle, and we'd like to vouch for her innocence."

"Yes! Because we know who the real culprits are!" Reimu smiled. "The Hear-" Sora discretely nudged her in the ribs. Reimu stopped herself, and gave a tiny nod. They were already meddling with this world's affairs enough; she didn't need to be letting slip that they knew _exactly _what had tried to steal the Queen's heart. "Um, I mean, those monsters that are everywhere! Wriggle definitely isn't one of them."

"We were, um, earlier we got attacked by them, too." Sora nodded, adding on to Reimu's testimony. "And we saw them up close. They're really scary looking, but definitely not fireflies. Wriggle is innocent! Please, your majesty, don't make her lose her head!"

The Queen narrowed her eyes and looked at them both for a while, saying nothing. Then, she clapped her hands twice and four cards walked out of the lines surrounding the court; the aces of all four suits. With a stomp of the ace of clubs' foot, the defendant's podium disappeared with a puff of smoke, and Sora and Reimu fell to the ground. The other card soldiers rushed towards Alice's dolls and broke through the circle, grabbing Wriggle and pushing Alice, Tewi, and the dolls back to the edge of the garden, along with Donald, Goofy, and the younger Alice. Some of the cards formed a barricade, separating them from everyone else.

"What's the meaning of this?" Alice yelled at the Queen (both because she was angry and because the edge of the garden was quite a ways away from the Queen and the rest of the court).

The cards holding Wriggle moved towards something covered with a curtain on the side of the King's high throne. They pulled off the curtain to reveal a golden cage, which they promptly shoved Wriggle into, ignoring her protests and profanities. The cage shot up on a track right between the Queen and King.

"Very well then!" The Queen said in mock sweetness. "I have decided something much more entertaining for this trial." The audience clapped and cheered in response. The Queen bowed her head and smiled at them, then looked back, sneering, at Sora and Reimu. "You say she is innocent, and that the true culprits are the monsters that have been here uninvited in MY Wonderland? Do you have any proof?"

"Er, well, that depends on what you mean by 'proof'…" Sora said, scratching the back of his head.

"Well then!" The Queen clapped her hands together. "I will believe you and that this bug is innocent if you can complete one simple task for me."

"Bring it on. We'll do anything." Reimu said confidently.

"Defeat my Four Aces in combat, and I will let all of you go!"

Reimu's confident face quickly went blank.

"Hey!" Donald and the others' cries were heard from behind them. Sora and Reimu turned around to see that they were all suddenly in cages that looked like to have been made of red roses, as if they had just grown from the ground. Alice especially had seemed to have gotten her hands and arms completely covered in roses, making her unable to move her fingers at all, and her dolls had fallen to the ground with their master unable to control them.

"Damn it… It's up to you guys!" Tewi called from the cage she was in. "Show 'em who's boss!"

"Don't worry, you guys!" Goofy yelled as well. "I know you can do it! Right, Donald?" Donald, on the other hand, had an expression on his face that clearly showed he thought otherwise.

Sora and Reimu looked at each other and nodded. They looked at the Four Aces. Though they were just giant cards, they were all holding very sharp, painful-looking weapons. Sora looked up at Wriggle.

"Don't worry. We'll get you outta there!" He gave her a thumbs up. She rubbed her nose and nodded.

The old rabbit blew his trumpet.

"The battle between the Four Aces against the young travelers will now commence!"

The Queen sat comfortably in her throne. The King yawned and leaned back, apparently about to take a nap. The audience cheered loudly as the Four Aces slowly lifted their weapons and began to stalk towards Sora and Reimu, who summoned their Keyblade and _gohei_.

"Um, you take the ones on the left, I'll take the ones on the right?" Reimu asked Sora.

"Sounds good to me!" Sora grinned.

"Let's send them falling!"

"Like a house of cards!"

* * *

**Now is no time for jokes, Sora!**

**Hello everyone! It's me, Frost! Sorry to keep you waiting!  
**

**I'm so glad this chapter is finally done! I had so much trouble writing it. I won't get into details, but let me just say I'm happy but really not happy at the same time with this. u_u  
**

**Oh well. Everyone's got some duds sometimes, right? Right?!  
**

**I kept listening to songs from Dangan Ronpa during the trial. I had to stop myself from putting them in as BGM. One crossover at a time, Frost! Though I did put in a reference, for my own enjoyment. Sorry. (I'm not sorry)  
**

**My, events are unfolding much differently than in the original game, yeah? "But Frost what are you gonna do with Alice" Well, you'll have to wait and see, riiiiiight?  
**

**Next chapter should be it for Wonderland! I hope I have a much easier time writing it than I did this one!  
**

**Thank you, happy new year, and I hope you all have been enjoying the demo for Hopeless Masquerade! Here's hoping the full version comes soon! uwu  
**


	9. Romantic Heartless

[BGM: To Our Surprise]

Sora was in a bit of trouble. For some reason, he was suddenly unable to use the fire magic Donald had given him, and the aces of spades and clubs were currently chasing him wildly around the garden, their axes nearly finding his neck at regular intervals. Reimu wasn't having much luck, either. Though she had an advantage of being able to fly and just use her amulets, the heart and diamond aces' spears were easily stretching up to meet her and break her concentration. She had given up on the amulets as the spears just wouldn't stop interrupting her, and had resorted to just smacking the spears with her _gohei_, trying to find an opening so she could hit the cards themselves, which was proving to be very difficult; each time she tried to attack one, the other would nearly impale her. The audience of the court was cheering excitedly for the aces, and the Queen of Hearts sat back smugly in her throne, glancing over at Wriggle in her cage, who was watching with wide eyes and biting her lower lip. It made sense for her to be extremely worried, after all; Sora and Reimu were fighting for her freedom, and if they lost, she'd lose her head, and theirs as well, she guessed. There was no way the old hag would just let all her friends go if they did indeed fail her challenge.

On the other side of the garden, in cages made of roses, Tewi, the younger Alice, Donald, and Goofy watched with the same nervousness that Wriggle had. The younger Alice especially watched with worry, fearful of what could happen to her new friends. Donald and Goofy loudly cheered for Sora and Reimu, trying to show support for them opposing the loud, obnoxious audience at the other end of the garden. Tewi wanted to cheer with them, but couldn't make herself do it. In the back of her mind, she had doubts about those kids' abilities and completely prepared herself for their loss. Alice Margatroid, on the other hand, wasn't even watching the fight. The Magician wasn't even facing the same direction as the rest of them. No, Alice Margatroid had her back turned to the cards and the two humans, and was staring intently into the darkness of the entrance of the garden, her mind furiously racing as she tried to understand just what it was she had seen, and why she had seen it now, of all times.

"Yaah!" Sora yelled as he brought down his Keyblade over and over again on the ace of club's head. He quickly rolled away as he sensed the spades behind him, and grinned as the spades brought his axe down on the clubs' head. "Hehe! It's like in a cartoon!" He laughed, but quickly ran out of the way as the two furious cards got right back up and began chasing him once again, though the clubs was considerably slower and clumsier. Sora glanced over at how Reimu was doing- and frowned as he saw she wasn't doing well at all. She was just flying randomly now, leading the red cards around the garden as they tried to hit her. Sora wondered why she didn't just fly so high in the sky that they couldn't reach her, but then he noticed something about the cards. The two of them seemed to be tired, and were getting slower and slower as they tried to keep up with Reimu. So that was what she was doing- tiring them out until they wouldn't be able to move so she could make her attack. Sora grinned, impressed, and looked over his shoulder at the two cards behind him. The clubs was severely lagging behind now, but the spades was getting even closer, and in the time Sora had taken to look back, he had raised his axe to swing again. "Ah!" Sora brought up the Keyblade and blocked the axe, though it was very difficult as the axe was extremely heavy.

"Hey! Behind you!" He heard Reimu's yell just in time, and he rolled to the side away as the clubs, who had snuck up behind him, struck the spades instead. Sora took the moment of shock between the two of them to rush both of them and hit them a few times, then turned and ran before they could get him. He looked behind him again, and was pleased to see that the two cards were both angrily but very slowly coming after him.

"All right, no more running!" Sora said, and lifted his Keyblade towards them. "Fire!" The words were out of his mouth before he remembered that he couldn't use fire- but to his surprise, a fireball did indeed come out of the end of the blade, making the cards flail around wildly as they tried to rid themselves of the flames. "Huh?" He looked over at Donald, who was clapping excitedly. He'd need to ask him just how magic actually worked. He turned and ran to the cards. "Here, I'll help you!" He grinned as he smacked them over and over with his Keyblade. The cards dropped their axes, and Sora hit them with the Keyblade like a baseball bat, sending them flying away easily. The cards tried in vain to get up and run to their weapons, but Sora just hit them again and again. In the back of his mind, he felt pretty bad, since these were actual sentient beings as opposed to the mindless monsters of the Heartless, and he hoped he wasn't hurting them too bad. On the other hand, of course, if he lost against them they would probably really kill him, so he didn't feel _too _bad about it. Soon, the cards stopped moving, and he heard the wild cheers of his friends in their cages, and the sad-sounding cries of the royal court. He looked over up at Wriggle, who was smiling wide and clapping furiously, and at the Queen, who looked like she was going to turn red again with rage. He turned to see how Reimu was doing, and suddenly heard a large ecstatic cheer from the court and yells from his friends. As he fully turned to Reimu, he had a terrible sudden sinking feeling in his chest as he saw her on the ground, clutching her side and scrunching her face in pain, as the ace of hearts prepared to thrust his spear right into her head.

"FIRE!" Sora yelled, and a huge burst of flame came out of the Keyblade, and quickly headed straight at the hearts' head, making him drop his spear in surprise as he flailed around wildly. Sora rushed over to Reimu and looked at her side, and saw her clothes stained a darker red around the area.

"Sora…" Reimu looked up at him. "Sora, what gives? You beat your cards easily and I only got one of mine before getting hit? I thought I was the one good at this."

"Now isn't a time for jokes!" Sora cried. "Um, um, wh-what do I do? You're hurt really bad!"

"Well, you could beat up _him_, for one thing." She looked over Sora's shoulder and he quickly turned to see the hearts picking up his spear and heading for them.

"…Right." Sora rushed at him, jumping away from the spear thrust at him, and smashed his Keyblade into the side of the card's face. The card was considerably lighter than the ones he had fought, probably since it didn't have as much of a weight to carry around, but was faster. However, it was sluggish after chasing around Reimu for too long, and was easy for Sora to knock down again and again, which he did so happily, all guilt about hurting it gone after what it had done to Reimu. Eventually, it too lay still, unconscious.

The audience went wild, cheering and chanting. Their friends in the cages cheered as well, but kept their eyes on Reimu. Wriggle looked as if she was about to cry with relief, and the Queen just glared down at the defeated cards. Sora ignored all of them and rushed to Reimu's side. She was sitting up, clutching her side, and he saw her fingers were coated red. She smiled at him.

"Good job! I'm jealous. The score's 3-1, your advantage, I think." She put on a devious face. "Don't get cocky, though, mister. I'll find a way to one-up you soo-" She was interrupted by Sora hitting her on the head.

"Shut up! This is no time for that!" He looked at her wound. "We gotta get that bandaged up or something or-"

"Reimu!" The two of them turned as their friends rushed to them, free of their rose-covered cages. Donald pushed Sora out of the way to look at Reimu's side.

"Ah, it's really fine." Reimu told him. "It's big, but it's not deep at all. He just grazed me." She frowned. "I think I prefer hard-level danmaku, to this, though."

"Oh, hush." Donald said. He lifted his staff. "Cure!" A green light enveloped Reimu, and bright leaves surrounded her, then disappeared. Everyone watched in awe as Reimu's wound glowed green as well, and was suddenly gone.

"Wh- Wow!" Sora said excitedly. "That was amazing!"

"Donald's the best at this sorta stuff!" Goofy smiled.

"Thank you." Reimu stood up. She smiled at Donald.

"Aw, it was no big deal." Donald shrugged. "Be more careful."

Tewi had marched over to the rest of the court, and was looking fiercely at the Queen.

"Alright, you saw it. They did it. So, you gonna let us go or what?"

The Queen glared at her, and seemed to be about to yell, but she was interrupted by her husband.

"Dear," the King said, "Don't you think we've had enough excitement for today? We can have another trial tomorrow. There's always someone doing something wrong, after all." He yawned. "Why don't we send the cards out to find the true perpetrators, and let these children go? They certainly have proven themselves."

The Queen looked like she was about to say something nasty, but closed her mouth and sighed.

"Very well, dear." She clapped twice and the cage holding Wriggle dropped to the ground and opened, and Wriggle hurriedly clambered out into Tewi's open arms. The Queen looked down at them, and over at the others. "You all! Get out of my sight! You are free to go." She looked at the rest of the card army. "You fools! Find the ones behind my attack. I don't care how!" The cards saluted and ran out of the garden, with the audience cheering for them. The Queen, who seemed to have decided that everyone other than her court wasn't there, turned to the audience and started talking about boring things like laws, which Sora and co. had no interest in. Tewi brought Wriggle over to the others.

"Hello again, Wriggle!" Goofy said. "Glad ta see you get to keep yer head!"

"Ah, thanks." Wriggle grinned. She turned to Sora and Reimu, and bowed. "Thank you very much." She straightened up and looked at all of them. "Thank you very much, all of you."

"No problem!" Sora said, glancing at Reimu, who rolled her eyes.

"Uh?" Tewi looked around. "Yo, where did Alice go?"

"Huh?" The others looked as well. Sure enough, they were short one Alice. The younger Alice looked worried and bit her lip.

"Um, I think I saw her…"

"Did you?" Tewi asked. "When did she leave?"

"Um, it was as soon as our cages fell apart." Alice said. "She looked very concerned and took her dolls and went straight behind us, into the room where we came from." She pointed behind them at the entranceway of the garden. "Um, I also noticed that during the fight, she wasn't watching like us. She was just looking at the entrance."

"Huh? What's gotten into her?" Tewi scratched her head. "That's really not like Alice at all. She wouldn't just leave, especially during something so important as that fight!" She rubbed her nose. "Come on, guys. Let's go find her. She's acting so weird… something's gotta be up!"

"Onward, then." Reimu nodded. "She can't bail on us now. I still need to learn how to make spell cards!"

They all shared fleeting laughs, and ran to the Bizarre Room, leaving the Queen and her crazy court behind them.

* * *

"…Nothing." Wriggle crossed her arms, walking around the large room. "Nothing here."

"Could she have gone back through that door to her garden?" Alice asked.

"She can't. It's a one-way spell; once it closes, it reverts back to a door into her house." Tewi scratched her nose. "Hey, Reimu! Let's fly around and see if she's up in a shelf or something. You too, Wriggle." They nodded and the three of them lifted into the air, looking like flies in the room (of course that image fit perfectly for Wriggle). Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alice searched the ground, looking under the bed, in the fireplace, and attempting to ask the doorknob if he had seen anything, but of course he just pretended to be asleep even though it was obvious that he wasn't. Eventually, they all met up on the ground again, having found nothing.

"Man, where could she have gone?" Sora sighed.

"Where, indeed?" Asked the cat.

"This really isn't like her…" Tewi chewed on her lip. "I mean, something must've happened to her, but there's no signs of any struggles or anything, and no traces of her magic…"

"Quite a conundrum." The cat grinned, rolling on the ground.

"…W-wait!" Wriggle exclaimed. Everyone had jumped as they all suddenly realized that the Cheshire Cat had appeared between all of them without any of them noticing. The cat laughed.

"Mister Cat!" Alice said. "Have you seen Miss Alice?"

"Hmhmhm?" The cat giggled. "An Alice asking about another Alice? Absolutely amazing!"

"Now's no time for jokes!" Tewi stomped her foot.

"Have you seen her or not?" Donald asked.

"Alice, no. Shadows, yes!" The cat said.

"Where did they go?" Goofy asked him.

"This way? That way? Does it matter? Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows!" The cat bounced on his hind legs. "You might find them in this very room! Though not facing in the same directions!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Reimu crossed her arms.

"This room is bizarre, isn't it?" The cat grinned wider, if that was even possible. "Sometimes if you enter it the right way, you may find yourself in an upside-down room instead!" He laughed again, and disappeared.

"What on earth…?" Alice asked. Tewi looked straight up at the room's ceiling.

"Looks like we're gonna have to go back to Alice's."

* * *

Perhaps the most unsettling thing about the trip back through the forest to Alice's cottage was that when they entered the garden, all the lanterns were out. Seeing the garden without the warm, colorful lights above and bathed in darkness made the whole place seem much lonelier. Or, perhaps the most unsettling thing was that the painting propped up in the hedge of the funny old man and hare looked as if it had changed in the darkness; though it was probably just because of the darkness, the two looked as if they were crying. Or maybe the most unsettling thing was that in the entire time that it took them all to get from the Bizarre Room and through the forest, they had not seen one single Heartless.

"I really don't like this…" Reimu said.

"Are you frightened of the dark, Miss Reimu?" Alice asked.

"What? No way." Reimu scoffed. "I just don't like not being able to see."

"Plus, it's kinda spooky, ain't it?" Goofy said. "Everything's all quiet and we haven't had to fight anything."

"I'm glad we haven't had to, but…" Sora sighed. "It's really suspicious, isn't it?"

"Would you lot pipe down? I'm trying to open this the wrong way!" Tewi snapped at them, picking at the lock on the cottage door.

"Huh? Wrong way? Why?" Donald asked.

"Well, it's how we're gonna be able to be upside down in the Bizarre Room." Wriggle said, holding up her index finger like a scholarly person. "See, Alice has a defensive spell on the door in case anyone tries to break in. If you force yourself in, you end up in the Bizarre Room with your gravity all whacked out!"

"Wow, magic can be used for a lot of stuff, can't it?" Sora said, looking at Donald. "Can you do something like that?"

"Hm. I'm sure it'd be easy if I learned how, but I don't." Donald shrugged. "Besides, what would I need a spell like that for in the castle?" Instantly he brought his hands to his beak.

"Castle?" Alice asked, her eyes wide.

"Huh? Wait, what?" Wriggle looked at Donald, interested.

Donald looked panicked, but he was spared having to think of a cover-up by Tewi's pleased cheer.

"Yahoo! Got it! We have successfully unsuccessfully broken into Alice's house!" She opened the door and light flooded from it, and the rest of them looked in amazement as they saw quite a different version of the room they had been in not to long before.

"Alright, then. Maybe we'll find some clues now." Reimu said, with everyone else nodding in agreement. "Let's go, then?"

"Yeah!" Sora ran first into the room. He made the mistake of looking up and seeing the floor high above them, and had to shake his head to get rid of his sudden disorientation. He and the others who couldn't fly ran around on the ceiling looking at everything they possibly could, while the three girls who could fly zipped around in the air inspecting everything. They all met together at the base of a light, which made Sora disoriented once again as he thought of how it was hanging down, but down was up, but it was still so weird…

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Tewi said angrily. "That stupid mangy cat was no help at all! We came to all this trouble for nothing."

"No Heartless, either." Reimu said softly to the boys. "Where could they be hiding?"

"And the momeraths outgrabe." Everyone yelped as the cat once again appeared out of nowhere, lying leisurely on the light above them. "Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light." He disappeared.

"The light?" Alice asked. "Does he mean these two here?"

"Might as well try." Sora jumped to the lamp's edge and climbed up to it. He knocked on the glass and the lamp suddenly turned on.

"Ah, too easy!" Reimu grinned, flying up and tapping on the second lamp next to them's glass. It too turned on at her touch.

"Great!" Goofy said.

"Now what?" Donald asked, looking around for the cat. He jumped as it appeared right next to him.

"All the lights are on." The cat said happily. "You'll see the shadows soon. They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. The shadows might go after that doorknob, too. Hm?" He looked up at the floor above them. "Oh~? You spooked the shadows so suddenly they dropped something!" He disappeared. The group looked up and collectively gasped as near where the doorknob was, they saw a familiar blue-clothed figure.

"Alice!" Tewi yelled. She made to fly up (or down?) to her but was suddenly stopped by a bright red Heartless appearing out of nowhere in front of her. Heartless were appearing all around them; the fat little flying red ones which knew fire magic, and the large fat ones who could only be hurt on their backs.

"Oh, NOW they show up!" Reimu yelled angrily as she summoned her _gohei _and flew around slashing at them. Sora brought out the Keyblade and made to get rid of the large ones with Donald's help. Goofy had grabbed Alice and Wriggle and was shielding them from the Heartless' attacks, smiling gratefully when Sora and Donald got rid of the assailants. After a while, it became apparent that the Heartless just wouldn't stop appearing, and the group made back to where they had come from, through the doorway into Alice's garden which Tewi had made sure to keep propped open so they would be able to get back. Donald and Goofy slammed the door shut as a group of the red Heartless rushed towards them. They heard a clicking noise as the door flashed white, then all was dark again.

"Alright, no time to lose!" Tewi declared, and went right back to the door and knocked on it. "Yo, house! Your witch is in trouble, please let us through the right way so we can save her!"

"Huh? Will that actually work?" Sora asked, and raised his eyebrows as another clicking sound was heard, and Tewi opened the door again to find a properly aligned Bizarre Room flooding the area with its light.

"Well, courtesy is always rewarded, isn't it?" Wriggle giggled at him.

"Hurry!" Tewi yelled back at them, as she had already ran as fast as she could towards Alice lying on the ground in front of the not-really-sleeping doorknob. She was holding Alice in her arms and gently shaking her when the rest of the group caught up to them.

"Miss Alice!" The younger Alice said, dropping down to her knees at Tewi's side. "Oh dear, please say something!"

"Come on, Alice!" Wriggle said, dropping down as well, prying Alice's grimoire out of her arms. "Open your eyes!"

"…" Alice's face twitched, and she slowly opened her eyelids, though it seemed to be causing her a great deal of trouble. "…Ah. You guys… what happened…? I remember us winning the trial, and I saw…"

"What? Alice, what did you see? What happened?" Reimu asked.

"Um, should you use that healing magic you used on Reimu?" Sora asked Donald.

"I don't know if it'll do any good, but I can try." Donald made to lift his staff, but Alice shook her head.

"No, don't waste energy on me. I still… I need to…" Alice shakily rose to her feet. Tewi held onto her arm.

"Alice Margatroid, you will tell us what happened _right now_. What made you like this? What _could've _made you like this? You're the toughest girl in all of Wonderland, but now…"

Alice sighed, and looked around at the whole group.

"I've just been a huge fool all day… I wonder what's come over me lately." She sighed again. "During the trial, I kept hearing something far away. I thought… I thought someone was calling my name. Someone familiar who I can't remember." She stared at the ground. "And then, a few moments before our cages fell apart, I saw something just as familiar, but I couldn't quite place why. So without thinking, I just rushed on to try to see what it was." She paused.

"Then what?" Goofy asked.

"Then… I was ambushed from behind." She grimaced. "Whatever I had heard and seen, I let my guard down for one crucial moment… and the enemy took that moment and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded by black, and then…" She looked at Tewi. "Then I woke up just now."

"The Heartless took her?" Sora whispered. "Why would they do that?"

"And why go to all that trouble? Was it really just the Heartless?" Reimu whispered back.

"…" Donald and Goofy were both at a loss as to what to say.

"Well, we must get you home at once!" Younger Alice stood up with Wriggle. "You need to rest!"

"Ah, I think a cup of tea will do." Alice laughed, but stopped as her eyes locked on to something above them all. They turned around to see the Cheshire Cat grinning at them from up on the table above them.

"Something wicked this way comes. You'll get a better view from higher up." He disappeared.

"What's that stupid furball talking about?" Tewi snapped.

"…You guys should get Alice to her house." Sora said quietly.

"Huh?" Wriggle asked. "What's going on?"

"You feel it too, Reimu, don't you?" Sora looked over at her. "This feeling like something bad's about to happen."

"Yeah. It feels like back home did, just before…" Reimu turned to the other girls. "Yeah. You guys go on ahead. We'll meet you there, okay?"

"But…" Little Alice said. Wriggle also showed confused reluctance. Tewi and Alice Margatroid, on the other hand, simply nodded and moved toward where the door to Alice's garden had appeared, under the enormous bed in the corner of the room. Wriggle and Little Alice followed them, looking back at the four staying behind.

"We're going to close the door, so just come through the forest, okay?" Tewi called back to them.

"Yeah! See you in a bit!" Sora yelled back. They heard the telltale click and saw the door vanish. The four of them looked at each other, and made towards the table, jumping up on top of it (or in Reimu's case, flying up and landing on it). They waited, but nothing happened.

"…Did that stupid cat just say all that stuff as a prank?" Reimu said angrily.

"I don't think so. I still don't feel very good…" Sora said. He was feeling a sort of falling feeling in his chest, like his heart was telling him that something was about to happen.

"Oh? Got a stomach ache?" Goofy asked.

"That's not it." Sora smiled at him.

"Hehehe!" Once again, the cat appeared out of nowhere. "The shadows should be here soon. They're very upset you made them drop their prize. Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad!" Giggling madly, he pointed up with his paw. The four looked up and collectively gasped as a huge red and black Heartless dropped from the ceiling, jumped over the table, and 'unraveled' its arms like paper. Then, the Heartless pulled out two purple striped batons and began juggling them.

[BGM: Shrouding Dark Cloud]

"Alright, piece of cake!" Sora yelled, summoning the Keyblade and dropping into his stance. "Let's go!"

The Heartless didn't seem to like being underestimated, and took that moment to set both of its batons on fire.

"…We've seen worse." Reimu shrugged, lifting off and summoning both her _gohei _and Homing Amulet. She flew around the Heartless, hitting its head over and over again up close, and backing off quickly and shooting her amulets when it tried to swat at her. Sora and Goofy rushed at it on foot, jumping and swiping at it with their respective weapons, while Donald kept his distance, firing different magic at it. The Heartless swung at them with both arms and missed, hitting and destroying the table instead.

"This guy sure can pack a punch!" Goofy yelled, blocking debris with his shield.

"Be careful!" Donald called, casting Cure on him.

Up in the air, Reimu was having considerably less trouble than the boys, continuing her normal pattern of getting close and backing off when the Heartless decided to try to get her. She _was_ rather bored, however. The guys were having all the fun actually fighting the creature, and yet here she was just hanging around in the air shooting at it with her boring amulets.

"…I shouldn't be thinking about it like that…" She said aloud to herself. "This is serious. This thing and its cohorts tried to kidnap Alice, after all." She frowned. "But we still don't know _why_." She continued flying around. "...Argh! I wish she had had time to teach me to make cool spell cards like hers! That would make this so much more excitiiiiiing!" In a fit of boredom-induced anger, she flew right at the Heartless' head and began simply kicking it. "Hurry up and die already!"

"Reimu, what are you doing?" Sora yelled up at her. He jumped to hit it near where she was (He never really did understand how he had been able to jump so much higher than he was able to before everything happened, though he did have a feeling it might have been a side-effect of Donald using magic on him). "That's not a really good way to fight it."

"Ah, shut up. I'm mad and I just want all of this to be ov-AH!" She shrieked as Sora was hit by one of the Heartless' flaming batons, sending him flying across the room and hitting a wall. He shakily got up while Reimu furiously both kicked and hit the Heartless repeatedly.

"Okay, we need a new plan." Sora ran over to Donald and Goofy. "Any ideas?"

"Why don't _you _try some magic, Sora?" Goofy asked.

"All I know how to do is fire, and considering that that's what this guy uses, I don't think that's a good idea." He looked at the Heartless who had completely forgotten about them and was futilely trying to hit Reimu, who just kept flying away from its swipes.

"…" Donald looked at his staff. "Sora, all mages learn magic in their own way at their own paces. Sometimes it comes from outside sources, and sometimes," he looked at Sora, "it comes from inside you."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, maybe now is one of those times to look deep inside yourself and bring out some new magic!"

"How am I supposed to do that?!"

"Oh, just try, would you!" Donald squawked angrily. "Just hitting this thing isn't working, and I'm worried about Reimu getting tired! I mean, all four of us have already been through a lot of fighting today! How long can we go with this thing, since it won't quit already?"

"…" Sora looked down at his Keyblade. Donald was right; if they didn't end this soon, they'd be done for. But how on earth was he supposed to just 'look deep inside himself' and be able to use a different kind of magic?

"Sora!" Reimu yelled at him. "You gonna just keep standing there like an idiot or are you gonna help us?"

He faced the Heartless, lifting the Keyblade up to it. He stared at the Heartless intently and thought hard. _Okay okay okay okay. Magic, magic. Uh… Well, there's Fire, but I definitely don't want to do that. Why can't Donald just teach me everything? Would that be so bad? What do I have to do to kill this thing?_ He watched as Reimu, Donald and Goofy attacked the Heartless, who was treating them as more of annoyances than actual threats. It was gleefully attacking them with its fiery batons, jumping this way and that to evade them. _If I could get rid of that fire… _He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He imagined the fires being put out by water, then thought of the ocean, of waterfalls, of the exact opposite of fire… He thought of winter, and of snow, which could only be seen back home when going to a mountain on the main island, and thought of how when he was young he and his friends would play pretend and had all once imagined that they were all trapped in a cabin in a snowstorm…

Something inside him changed. He opened his eyes and knew exactly what he needed to yell out. He ran closer to the Heartless, pointed the Keyblade at one of its batons, and cried out, "_Deep freeze!_" A large chunk of ice erupted from the weapon's tip, and hit its target dead-on. Instantly, the baton's fire went out. The Heartless stopped and looked inquisitively at its baton, then quickly looked at the other one which Sora casted Blizzard on as well. It looked frantically between its two unlit batons, then lashed out at the four of them, furious that they had dared put its fire out.

"Nice going!" Reimu winked at him, and continued her assault on their foe.

"Great job! You did it!" Donald jumped around happily. "I've been shooting ice at him, but I didn't even think to use it like that!"

"I think we're almost done, fellas!" Goofy cried out, and it seemed that he was right. The Heartless seemed to have used up quite a bit of its energy from its tantrum about its batons, and was slowing down, feebly trying to swipe at Reimu and stomp on the boys.

"I think it's time for an all-out attack!" Reimu yelled, looking over at Sora expectantly. He grinned and nodded, and the four of them all rushed at the Heartless together, hitting it from all sides with weapons, magic, and amulets. When they broke away, the Heartless was considerably weakened, feebly trying to continue juggling its batons.

"It looks so sad. I kinda feel bad for it…" Sora frowned. He raised the Keyblade for a final strike, and looked straight into the Heartless' eyes. "Sorry about this!" He struck the Heartless for the last time, and all four of them knew it was over. The Heartless twitched, stared straight at them, then fell over backwards, disappearing into light. From it, the four of them could see the light of a heart floating up and disappearing as well. They were all silent for a moment, then cheered loudly to each other.

"Finally!"

"We did it!"

"Now we can go see Alice!"

"What a racket!" At the last words, the heroes turned around to see that they had ended up right in front of the Doorknob, who was looking at them drowsily and clearly annoyed. "How's a doorknob to get any sleep?" He opened his mouth wide in a huge yawn. As they looked into it, Sora noticed how it was shaped like a keyhole. Of course, that was to be expected, being part of a Doorknob and all, but what was unexpected was the fact that the Keyblade suddenly began sparkling, and in a flash of light and tiny stars, a beam shot out from the end of it right into the keyhole. They all heard a loud locking sound.

"What was that?" Donald asked.

"You hear that? Sounded like something closed." Sora replied. He looked over at Reimu, who nodded slowly and stepped closer to the door. "Reimu?"

"Whatever just happened must have been important." She said. She summoned some of her cards, but they were not the blank spell cards or her homing amulets; these were familiar cards to Sora. They were small, white, with neat red writing on them with symbols Sora had grown up seeing but never really knowing what they meant.

"What're you doin' with those?" Goofy asked.

"These are seals!" She said, placing them around the door. "The Heartless were after this door, right? We can't let them do whatever they wanted to do. But we won't be here to protect it forever, right?" She finished putting them down, stepped back, and clapped her hands together, closing her eyes. She muttered something the boys could not hear, and instantly the cards vanished with a red flash. "Eh? Uh…" Reimu said, opening her eyes and seeing the seals gone. "Um, that must be what's supposed to happen. Now that we're in a world of magic, things must work differently than back home." She turned to the boys, a sheepish smile on her face. "To be honest, I don't know if it'll actually work. But once your Keyblade did that thing, I just suddenly had this thought that I should do this."

"I get what you mean." Sora nodded.

"So what, will those protect this door?" Donald asked.

"Yes! They should." Reimu grinned. "They're imbued with holy power! And I, being a holy maiden…" she glared at Sora, who had begun to snicker at that comment, "…Am confident that it will stop the Heartless from being able to hurt this door!"

Donald and Goofy looked impressed, then surprised as something else happened with the door. A small item, bright blue and yellow, dropped out of the keyhole.

"What is that?" Sora asked.

"Oh! That's…" Donald walked up to it.

"This gummi ain't like the others. No, sir." Goofy said, peering at it closely.

"Okay, I'll hold onto it." Donald pocketed it.

"Hmmhmmhmm~" The familiar annoying laughter reached their ears, and the four of them turned around quickly to see the Cheshire Cat standing on the table, which had suddenly appeared along with the chair in the time that they had had their backs to them. "You all are quite the heroes!"

"Pff. Come on guys, let's ignore it." Reimu scowled at it. "We need to go check up on Alice."

"It's useless, it's all useless!" The Cat shook its head. "Our poor, sweet Alice is gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness." He disappeared.

"Huh? W-what did he mean?" Reimu looked at the boys, her eyes wide.

"He means we need to get to the others, right away!" Sora said, running to the tiny door on the other end of the wall, leading to the crazy queen's court.

* * *

[BGM: Alice in Wonderland]

"It was as soon as we shut the door and left you guys." Tewi said, staring at the ground. "The monsters were waiting for us. It was an ambush."

"W-we couldn't beat them!" Wriggle wailed. "W-we tried, we t-tried really hard, b-but in the end we c-couldn't… We couldn't…" She yelled into her hands in frustration.

"I couldn't do anything…" The young Alice said, tears falling softly down her cheek. "Miss Alice told me to stay in the cottage, and I hid and closed my eyes, and when I heard all the noise stop…" She wiped away her tears with her hand. "All the monsters were gone, b-but… b-but…" She looked at Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy woefully. "So was Miss Alice!"

"…They're smarter than we've been giving them credit for." Reimu said darkly, slamming her fist into the cottage's wall. "They did that on purpose. They split us up, because they knew if all of us were there, we'd have been able to stop them."

"Even though they lost that keyhole, they got Alice back." Sora said, staring at the ground. "The cat was right after all."

They were all silent. Tewi stared at the ground for a while, then looked over at Reimu, her face solemn.

"…Hey. Alice did manage to do one thing before getting taken. For you."

"Huh?" Reimu looked at her, surprised. Her eyes widened as Tewi pulled out a familiar book. "Ah! Her grimoire?"

Tewi nodded and pushed it into her hands. "Alice said it was absolutely crucial for you to learn how to make your own spell cards. It may not seem like it, but it's a lot better to just start making them by yourself, without someone teaching you. But you still need to know to be able to start one." She tapped the book's cover. "This has all of Alice's notes, tips, and tricks for spell cards and just general magic. If something's too complicated to understand, just ignore it. Don't try any spells that don't explicitly say they're for spell cards, because that's actual Magician's magic then, and you're not a Magician, so they won't work for you anyway." She closed her eyes. "…All her spell cards are in the book too, so be… be careful with it, okay? This is a really important thing to Alice, and the fact that she wanted you to borrow it despite you being a human she's known for less than a day shows that you really deserve it." She opened her eyes and looked around at the boys. "You guys… You guys are on an adventure, right? You're traveling to different places, right?"

"…Yeah." Sora nodded.

"Then do your old pal Tewi a favor, eh?" She crossed her arms. "No matter what, you have to find Alice and bring her back home, got it?!"

"Yes ma'am!" Donald and Goofy saluted her.

"And make sure you give her back her book!" She barked at Reimu. "You're just borrowing it, understand?"

"Yeah!" Reimu hugged it tightly to her chest. "I promise, nothing will happen to it. And we'll find Alice!" She looked at Sora, who nodded.

"We definitely will!" He said. "And when we do, we'll come back here and have a party!"

Tewi smiled gratefully, and Wriggle and Alice hugged each other. With a few more words of encouragement and promises, the four of them asked the house politely to let them into the Bizarre Room one last time, and the house complied. With a final wave from each side of the door, it shut, leaving Tewi Inaba, Wriggle Nightbug, and Alice Liddel alone in what should have been a happy, warm garden.

"Do you think they'll really be able to find her…?" Alice asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." Tewi nodded. "Those guys… Out of everything weird that happens in this place every day…"

"They're definitely the weirdest people I've ever seen." Wriggle finished.

* * *

**whoops that took even longer than the last chapter**

**Hello everyone, it's me, Frost! **

**Wow. This took forever and was horrible and awful and I hate that it took me so long but I'm sorry but you know sometimes real life has to take precedence over fanfictions! You know what's terrible? School. School is terrible.**

**Well, it's not really, but it takes up so much of my goddamn time! I never had a free moment to work on this! It's always homework this or study that or play practice or other things and gaaaaah!**

**But it is here. I am here now. And I am determined to keep this fic alive, other events in my life be damned.**

**So! Uh, yeah. Last Wonderland chapter. Sorry if it seems rushed or confusing or anything at the end. Or the middle. Or the beginning. I just wanted to get this DONE AND OUT OF MY LIFE **

**Some major deviation from the source material here. But in a way, it isn't. I mean, Alice did get kidnapped like she did in the original KH! It's just... a different Alice.**

**Persona 4 and Umineko no Naku Koro ni lines in here somewhere. Big reward if you can find them. (I am lying. There is no reward.)**

**Next time: Olympus Coliseum! If you read the first version of this fic, you'll remember that was the first world we went to instead of Wonderland. And do not fear! I'll be completely rewriting these ones, not just super editing the original chapters and sticking them here, because really, the original chapters sucked. **

**Comments, questions, and suggestions always welcome! Until next time, good night! (I'll try not to make it another month before then.)**


	10. Memory of Forgathering Coliseum

The inside of the Gummi Ship was uncharacteristically quiet as it flew through the darkness of space. Donald steered as usual, quietly focusing on smoothly dodging floating debris, while Goofy dutifully watched the various monitors and lights to make sure everything was okay. Sora silently gazed out of the window next to him, thinking of Alice, and the Heartless, and Riku, Marisa, and Kairi, wondering if the same fate had befallen them, too. The only noise other than the beeps and boops of the ship itself came from the rustling of pages and mutterings of Reimu reading Alice's grimoire.

"…Sign… survival… last word…" She had been completely immersed in the book since the moment they had reentered the Gummi Ship from Wonderland, though Sora and Reimu both couldn't quite remember how exactly they had gotten back. She had not spoken a word to any of the boys since they departed, and hadn't even looked up when they had to outrun some Heartless ships a few minutes into their journey. Sora looked over at her.

"Find anything useful?"

"…" She ignored him. He figured she probably didn't register that he had spoken to her, and sure enough a few seconds she blinked and looked up, eyes wide. "H-huh? Did you say something?"

Goofy laughed. "Gawrsh, Reimu. There must be a lot of interestin' things in that book, huh?"

"Yeah!" She nodded enthusiastically. "I'm learning a bunch of stuff. Well, I mean, I can't understand half of what the hell she's talking about, but the stuff I _do _understand, I'm getting!" She turned the book around to show them the contents. "See? It's talking about different kinds of spell cards, and how to make them differentiate from each other, and how to make them in the first place!" She beamed. "I think I should be able to try to make one by the time we find another world!"

"Hey, how long is that gonna take, anyway?" Sora asked Donald.

"We've been following a signal for a while now. It actually shouldn't take too long by now." He pointed at a monitor on the dashboard. "The square is us, and the yellow line is the path to another world!"

"What's it called?" Reimu asked.

"We won't know till we actually get there." Goofy replied.

Sora looked over at Alice's grimoire. There were detailed sketches and diagrams surrounded by elegant handwriting, and he could just make out…

_However, it appears that only Tewi, Wriggle, and I are able to use these cards. What is most peculiar about them is that none of us know where they came from, or why we are able to use them and others aren't, and the connection between them and our abilities of flight without wings. (I find it curious that even Wriggle, who being a bug must have wings hidden underneath that cape, is also capable of flight without using them)_

_Based on our collective insights into these tools, not to mention the cryptic words of the Cat, I have written down what seem to be the rules for spell cards:_

_- Spell cards' power shall be ranked in four categories: easy, normal, hard, and lunatic._

_- Each spell shall be given a beautiful and meaningful name. (The cards will not work unless their name is announced)._

_- Attacks relying on physical strength are not to be repeated._

_- Do not attack without reason.__Reason becomes its own power._

_- If all your named spells are defeated, you are defeated, regardless of your remaining strength._

_- The name of the spell must be written on the card. (Obviously. What do you expect to come from a blank card?_

_- Spell cards are incapable of mortal damage. Bullets hurt, but cannot kill you._

"…I'm talking to you."

Sora jumped and looked up from the book. Reimu rolled her eyes at him.

"I said I want you to help me make my first real spell card. I have a vague idea of how I want it to look, but I don't know what to name it." She handed him a card, with a small design drawn in red on it. "That's the main pattern I want it to look like." She grinned. "What does it look like to you?"

Sora brought the card up close to his face to examine it. He could see a small figure in the center, which he supposed was where Reimu would be in relation to the bullets. He stared long and hard at the drawing, trying to figure out what a good name for the weird pattern would be.

"Um… It looks like… Circles?" Sora gave the card back to Reimu, awkwardly smiling at her unamused expression.

"Circles." She said, taking the card. "'It looks like circles'." She shook her head. "You're useless."

"Hey! You could call it, um…" Sora tried to think of something to make Reimu happy again. "Um… something… circle! Like, I mean, there's nothing wrong with just stating the obvious, right? I mean, the names are supposed to be meaningful, right? That's what Alice wrote."

Reimu looked at her card. "Something circle. …Something, circle…" She seemed to be thinking. Sora smiled, pleased that he had managed to help. "…Sealing. Sealing circle. …I got it." She looked up at Sora, a confident smile on her face. "I'll call it 「Evil Sealing Circle」!"

"That's a good name!" Sora said. "You're welcome, by the way." He grinned slyly.

"Oh, right. I guess you're not _that _useless." She stuck her tongue out at him. She turned the card over and wrote down the name on the back. "There! That should do it." She said, flipping the card over again. "Um… there's something to make it be able to work. But what…" She looked through Alice's book again. Sora looked over at Donald and Goofy.

"We any closer to the world?"

"We're really close, actually!" Donald said. "It won't be long now!"

"Hey… I think that's it!" Goofy excitedly pointed through the ship's windows. Sure enough, in the distance, something bright and large was floating, getting larger and larger as they sailed through the stars. "Look! The name's comin' on the monitor!"

Reimu stopped looking through the grimoire and looked excitedly up at the name of the new world. "Hmm… 'Olympus Coliseum'? What a weird name."

"I think it sounds cool!" Sora jumped up, his smile so big it threatened to cover his entire face. "Let's go! Full speed ahead!"

"You're not the captain!" Donald snapped at him, but he smiled anyway and sped up on a direct course for the new world.

* * *

Once again, Sora and Reimu couldn't quite remember actually landing and leaving the Gummi Ship, but their momentary confusions were gone in an instant as they marveled at the new area they had entered. It was grand, huge, and rather empty, with pillars surrounding the area and torches everywhere, and two gigantic statues of warriors brandishing swords at each other. There was a sort of feeling in the air; a feeling of excitement and action, that made Sora want to pull out his Keyblade and just start fighting someone, but he resisted the urge.

"Nothing much here…" Reimu said, looking around. She was still holding Alice's grimoire and her incomplete spell card in her arms.

"Why don't we check out over there?" Donald pointed across the area to two large, grand doors, engraved with lightning bolts.

"Well, not much else to do, huh?" Sora said. The foursome walked over to the doors, and hadn't even taken any steps up the stairs leading to them when they flew open and a girl walked out, who abruptly stopped as she saw them.

She was an odd looking girl, with a dark blue toga dress adorned with a sash in all the colors of the rainbow, and black laurels with the tiniest peaches resting on her long blue hair. She looked at them with surprised red eyes.

"Oh. Are you challengers?" She looked each of them over. "What odd clothing you're wearing. Let me guess." She grinned. "You're foreigners who heard about our wonderful coliseum, and you wanted to come see the fights for the gods' favors?"

"Huh? Is that what this place is?" Goofy asked. The girl looked at them blankly.

"Um… you mean you don't know what this place is?" She asked. The four of them nodded, and she burst out laughing. "Ah ha ha ha! You really _are_ foreigners!" She calmed herself to stop laughing. "Ha… ahem. Well, in any case, welcome to the Olympus Coliseum! Here is where heroes gather to fight each other and try to win the favor of the gods!"

"Heroes?" Donald and Goofy asked.

"Fight?" Sora asked excitedly.

"Gods?" Reimu asked, with equal enthusiasm.

"Yes, yes, yes!" The girl pointed at each of them with each 'yes'. "Here, all heroes are welcome to dedicate their power to the gods watching above, and if they win and the gods enjoy it, they get fabulous rewards!" She grinned at all of them. "So, foreigners! Are you heroes? Would you like to have some friendly competition in the tournaments?"

"We're not just 'foreigners'! I'm Sora, this is Reimu, and Donald, and Goofy! And you bet we do!" Sora said confidently.

"Hey, don't just sign us up for things…" Reimu sighed. "Though, I would like to see what kind of gods this world has…" She muttered under her breath.

"Well then!" The girl shook Sora's hand. "I like your spark, Sora. My name is Tenshi, official commentator of the tournaments and sometimes entrant myself!" She pointed at the doors behind her over her shoulder with her thumb. "Behind me is the lobby, where you can enter the tournament. Talk to Philoctetes. You'll know him when you see him." She giggled, like she had made a joke. "He'll set you guys up. Have fun!" She walked down the stairs and passed them, waving as she walked away. "I need to go talk with someone. I'll meet up with you all later to help you out!" She reached the other end of the area where there was a large gate leading out, went through it, and was gone.

"What a nice girl." Goofy said.

"Talk to Philoctetes, huh?" Sora said. "Let's go, then!" The four went up the steps and entered the coliseum lobby.

The lobby was a small room, its walls lined with trophies, boards, and torches, which casted warm light all around. Straight across from where they entered was an open door, which was blocked off by a small sign that said 'CLOSED'. Next to it, a small, funny-looking man with what appeared to be goat legs was standing on a large block, his back to them, working on one of the boards. The four walked up to him.

"Um…" Sora began, but the man interrupted him.

"Good timing. Give me a hand, will ya?" He pointed at another large block on the other side of the room. "Move that pedestal over there for me. I gotta spruce up the place for the games."

They looked at each other and shrugged, and went to move the block. However, no matter how hard all four of them pushed it, the block refused to move an inch.

"This thing weighs a ton!" Reimu muttered. "How are we supposed to move it?"

Sora walked over to the man. "It's way too heavy!"

The man stopped working on his board.

"What? Too heavy?" He chuckled. "Since when have you been such a little-" He stopped as he turned around and saw that apparently he wasn't talking to who he had thought he had been talking to. "Oh. Wrong guy." He looked the four of them over like Tenshi had, but whereas she had looked at them with interest, he looked at them with scrutiny. "What're you doing here?" He hopped off the block. "This here's the world-famous Coliseum- heroes only!" He walked up to the group. "And I got my hands full preparing for the games. So run along, pip-squeaks."

"Pip-squeaks?!" Sora yelled, glaring at the man.

"Big talk coming from such a _small_ goat." Reimu smirked down at him.

"Excuse me?!" He looked like he was about to blow a fuse, but he sighed and rubbed his temples. "Look, it's like this." He began to pace around. "Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum."

"You got heroes standing right in front of you!" Donald crossed his arms.

"Yup. He's a real hero chosen by the Keyblade!" Goofy proudly put his hands on Sora's shoulders. "And Reimu's a hero, too!"

"Aww, Goofy, you're so sweet." She put her hands up to her cheeks in mock embarrassment.

"And us, too." Donald pointed at himself and Goofy with his thumb. The man stared at them for a second, then burst out laughing.

"Heroes? You runts?" He laughed at Sora and Reimu.

"What's so funny? We've fought a bunch of monsters!" Sora said angrily. "You should see us fight!"

"Really?" The man walked over to the large block he had asked them to move. "Because if you can't even move this…" He attempted to push the block himself, but of course it didn't move at all, "You can't call yourself…" he was trying even harder, but the block did not yield, and Sora slowly crossed his arms at him while Reimu slowly raised her eyebrows, "a hero!" he gave up, and noticed the four looking at him. "…Okay, so it takes more than brawn." He coughed, got up, and dusted himself off. "…Ahem. Well, well, let's see what you can do, since you won't leave."

"Excellent!" Reimu smiled. "Um, just so we're clear, since we didn't introduce ourselves. You _are_ Philoctetes, right?"

"Eh? 'Course I am! Who else would I be?" Philoctetes scoffed. "Hey, just call me Phil, alright? Lemme guess, it was Tenko who had you come here in the first place, wasn't it? She's the only one who calls me that."

"Tenko? I thought it was Ten_shi_." Goofy said, confused.

"Yeah, that's her name. 'Tenko' is just a nickname." Phil shrugged. "You runts want to show me your stuff or what?"

"Yeah!" Sora said excitedly. "Come on! Let's go already!"

"Alright. Follow me." Phil led them through the blocked-off door, and they entered the arena. It was a large, flat area, covered in columns and barrels, surrounded by seats on all sides. He motioned for Sora and Reimu to step onto the ring, while keeping Donald and Goofy to the side. Reimu handed Alice's grimoire and her spell card to Goofy to hold.

"All right. The rules are simple! I'm gonna time you two, and you're gonna have to bust all the barrels before I yell time! Comprende?" Phil yelled at them.

"Got it!" Sora said, summoning the Keyblade. Reimu nodded and summoned her _gohei_.

"Well then! Ready? Go!"

As soon as he said the word go, the arena flashed with a white light, and the columns and barrels had moved and multiplied, and floating platforms appeared, making a sort of makeshift obstacle course. The two friends quickly looked at the placement of all the barrels, then at each other, and nodded. Sora began running as fast as he could around the ring, smashing every barrel he saw. Reimu, to the surprise of Phil, lifted off into the air and took out the barrels on top of columns and platforms, though it took her a little longer than Sora as her _gohei _was smaller than his Keyblade. Using this strategy, the duo quickly and effectively got rid of every last barrel. When they turned back to Phil, he was gaping wide-eyed at Reimu, but shook his head and coughed.

"…Well, if I'd of known you could do _that_…"

"Well, we proved ourselves, right? Can we join the games now?" Sora asked.

"N-not yet!" Phil said. He snapped his fingers and the arena flashed again, and a much more complex course appeared, with more barrels, columns, and platforms. "Try this!"

"Heh. Fine!" Sora grinned. Reimu was looking over the course, obviously plotting out her plan of action.

"Go!" Phil yelled, and the duo went at it again.

"Hmm. This is a bit more difficult." Reimu said nonchalantly, yet taking out every barrel she could with relative ease. Sora just laughed and happily smashed his barrels.

If Phil had thought that the increased number of obstacles would guarantee the duo's defeat, he was dead wrong, and he watched in resignation as the boy and girl easily dispatched their respective last barrels. He sighed as they walked (well, Sora walked; Reimu landed) to in front of him. He turned around and headed back into the lobby, and the four followed him. When they were inside, he turned back to them.

"Well, I'll admit it. You guys ain't half bad." He actually smiled at them.

"Looks like we're headed for the games!" Sora laughed.

"Afraid not." Phil's smile faded.

"Oh, come on!" Reimu said exasperatedly. "Don't tell me we need to break more stupid barrels!"

"No, it's not that." Phil shook his head.

"Then what?" Donald asked angrily.

"Two words!" Phil held up two fingers. "You guys ain't heroes!" He turned away, crossing his arms. Sora and Donald looked like they were going to yell, while Goofy confusedly counted the words Phil had said on his fingers.

"Phil, please…" Reimu said, clutching the grimoire she had taken back from Goofy. "What do we have to do to be 'hero' enough to join these games?"

Surprisingly, he actually turned and answered her. "You gotta prove you're worth the gods' time. Look." He took a medal off the wall and handed it to her. It was gold, with a cloud emitting a lightning bolt engraved onto it. "This is an emblem from Zeus, god of the sky and thunder, king of the gods. You wanna be allowed in the games? I suggest doin' something nice to it and make him like you to send you an entry pass. Go clean it or build an altar to him and put it on it or sacrifice something to him. He likes cake." Phil shrugged. "But you might as well leave. I still need to clean up for the games." He waved them away, and they left the lobby to the entrance area.

"…What the hell." Reimu scornfully tossed the emblem to Sora as they made their way down the steps. "Let's not even bother. This world's a dud, we should just go."

"Huh? Come on, Reimu! Don't you wanna fight in the games?" Sora asked, clumsily catching the medal. "Hey! Why don't you just ask the gods themselves to let us in? You can do that, can't you?"

Reimu shook her head. "I can talk to _my _gods. But ever since that Tenshi mentioned there were other gods here, I've been trying to call out to them in my mind, but they won't answer." She sighed. "I can tell what they're feeling, though. They don't trust me. Or any of us, really." She stared at the ground, and spoke in a quieter voice. "…They know we're from outside of this world."

"Huh?" Goofy exclaimed. "They can know that?"

"Well, duh. They're gods." Reimu raised her eyebrows at them. "I don't think this place is really worth it, anyway. Do you really think Riku or Marisa or Kairi would be here in a place like this? Or your king?" She shook her head. "We should just leave."

"Aw, giving up already? That's not what heroes do."

The four of them whirled around to see who was behind them who had spoken. Leaning against a pillar was a menacing-looking man, with blue fire coming out of his head, wearing a pitch-black toga, and with a black cat staring at them with piercing red eyes.

"Who are you?" Donald asked, pointing at him.

"Woah, hold on there, fuzz boy. Wait, let me guess." The man walked towards them. "You want to enter the games, right?" He put his hand on Sora's shoulder, who cringed; the man's hand was cold as ice. "Well, then, hey, get a load of this." He held out his hand, and with a flash of light, a tan piece of paper appeared. The cat began to purr.

"A pass?" Sora asked, looking at the paper closely.

"Who are you?" Reimu asked suspiciously.

"What? I come to answer those prayers you were sending out, and you look at me like I'm a bad guy?" He melodramatically frowned at Reimu in mock betrayal, then turned away from them.

"W-wait! Are you a…?" Reimu's eyes widened in realization.

"The pass's all yours. Good luck, kiddies. We're pulling for you, little shorties." The man disappeared before their eyes.

"…I guess this world's gods aren't so bad." Reimu shrugged at the boys. "We won't need that thing after all." She pointed at the medal in Sora's hand.

"Oh yeah." Sora looked at the pass in his hand, and at the medal. He pocketed the medal, shrugging. "I'll give it back to Phil when we win the games. I feel like it'll be a good luck charm."

Reimu shrugged, and led the boys back into the lobby. Donald and Goofy grinned at each other. For all her talk about the world being a dud and that they should leave, Reimu seemed to be just as excited for the games as Sora was.

* * *

"How'd you get this?" Phil was looking at the pass closely and suspiciously, as if trying to see if it were counterfeit.

"Can we enter the games now?" Sora asked, ignoring his question.

Phil stared at the pass for a while longer, and finally shrugged.

"Well, the pass seems legit. I suppose I can allow it." He placed the pass in a box on the side of the room. "We start with the preliminaries! You all ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be!" Sora said, looking as if he would burst from all the excitement he was trying to hold in. Reimu rolled her eyes, but once again Donald and Goofy could tell she was just as psyched as Sora was.

"Well then! I better warn you, some real weirdoes signed up for the tournament. None of the usual heroes at all." He took down the 'CLOSED' sign and was about to lead them into the arena, when-

"Oh! I'm just in time, am I?"

They all turned to the entrance of the lobby, where the girl Tenshi had just come in. She saw the four and grinned.

"Ah! So Philoctetes set you up, then? He's a good guy."

Phil grumbled at her. "You know, you sent me some real annoying rookies, Tenko. Wouldn't leave me alone at all."

"That shows determination. A good quality in heroes, right?" Tenshi smiled at him. Phil just rolled his eyes and led the four -now five- into the arena. The four were confused when they saw the stands completely empty, and Tenshi seemed to sense their confusion.

"The gods are our audience. They watch from their home, Mount Olympus." She pointed up at a huge cloud in the sky, which seemed a bit unnatural and yet natural at the same time.

"Well, I suppose that explains the 'Olympus' part of the world's name." Reimu whispered to Sora.

Tenshi, not hearing her, went on. "The stands here were just built for cosmetic purposes, really. Oh, well, I suppose it's where Philoctetes and I normally sit, too." She smiled at them. "I hope you all do well! May Tyche smile on you!"

"Um, thanks!" Reimu said to her.

"Well, it's about time." Phil said, looking up at the cloud above them. He looked at the four, standing awkwardly alone in the ring. "They'll be showing up soon. Just get out there and show them your stuff!"

"Got it!" The four said excitedly together.

* * *

When the first round started, they learned exactly what Phil had meant by 'weirdoes' joining the tournament, as their opponents were Heartless. At first they were alarmed, but the alarm turned into adrenaline as they rushed into battle, easily dispatching the Heartless, until there were none left. As they finished, loud, echoing cheers erupted from all around them, despite the lack of spectators.

"But if they're up in that cloud, then how…" Sora started to ask, but Reimu just shook her head at him.

"Just go with it. We can't explain what gods do."

Sora nodded slowly, and started to smile and wave at the empty stands. Reimu took a moment to figure out what he was doing, but quickly followed suit, and soon the four of them were doing it, waving to cheering spectators far, far away from them.

"You're not heroes yet, but you ain't doing bad!" Phil called them over to him on the sidelines.

"And here Philoctetes was telling me you'd get taken down in this round." Tenshi giggled.

"I said no such thing." Phil glared at her. "I'm confident in you rookies! After all, you had my excellent training."

"Oh yes. Beating up those scary barrels was the perfect way for us to hone our prowess." Reimu smirked at him. The others laughed, and Phil just stroked his beard, trying to save face. However, soon the laughter died away as footsteps filled the air. A man with spiky, blonde hair was walking towards the opposite end of the arena, where another door was. As he passed Sora, he looked at the boy curiously for a second, but looked away and eventually reached the other side, where he entered the door, his mouth open a little.

"Oh my. You better hope you don't end up facing him." Tenshi giggled.

"What? Why?" Sora asked nervously. "Who was that?"

"…Whoever he is…" Reimu said quietly, and as Sora looked over at her, still looking at where the man had entered the door, he was completely taken aback by the fact that she was _blushing_, "…he was kind of cool-looking, wasn't he?"

"He… he can't be as tough as he looks, right?" Donald asked.

Tenshi and Phil would not answer him.

* * *

**Reimu no**

**Tyche is the Greek equivalent to Fortuna, in case you didn't know**

**Hello everyone, it's Frost, and being fanfic writer is suffering**

**Bit of a shorter chapter this time. Mostly because it's 12:41 in the morning and I wanted to just end this already. I think you guys would prefer a little shorter than nothing at all, right?**

**Now to not update this thing for like another month. This seems to be becoming a pattern. I am so sorry!**

**To vaguely answer some comments given to me: No, the Moriya girls will not be showing up here in the Coliseum. I have different plans for them. Cirno isn't going to be in this story at all. Spoiler: if I manage to make it to KHII with this, and I really hope I do, that's where she'll appear. Please do not send me PMs asking me when the next chapter will be finished, because that just stresses me out because I KNOW it's been a long time since the last one, but in all honesty I am a super high school level stressed out senior and I have a lot more things on my plate to worry about then a fan fiction so please I'm sorry but you're just gonna have to deal with the mystery of when a chapter will be completed. It is a mystery.**

**on that happy note**

**Comments, questions, and suggestions are always appreciated, they really are. Thanks for reading.**

**Now go out and buy Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon because holy shit what a great game. A+ Nintendo, good for you.**


	11. Demystify Cloud

After their little pep talk, the four not-yet heroes returned to their matches. Over and over again, they fought more and more Heartless, easily destroying them and taking minimal damage.

"I hope this is over soon." Reimu said nonchalantly, smacking down a Red Nocturne. "I wonder, do the gods here like sake? I want some after this."

"Thinking about drinks at a time like this?" Sora laughed at her over a mob of Blue Rhapsodies.

"Gives me something to look forward too!" Reimu called back.

"Hey, we could use some help over here!" Donald yelled at them. He and Goofy were back to back, surrounded by the magic-wielding Heartless. Sora and Reimu rushed over to their aid, and within minutes, the Heartless were all gone. The four were once again met with cheers from nowhere, and waved and smiled to the empty stands around them. Phil motioned for them to go over to him.

"You guys are better than I thought! Wish he was here to see this."

"Who?" Sora asked.

"Heracles." Tenshi said, tracing her finger along the cover of Alice's grimoire which Reimu had asked her to look after while she fought.

"_Hercules_." Phil said, rolling his eyes at Tenshi. "He's a hero if ever there was one. Too bad he's off visiting his father."

"His father?" Goofy asked. Tenshi grinned and simply pointed up at the cloud above them.

"All right, break's over! Go, go!" Phil shooed them away before they could ask more of this mysterious hero and his father.

Yet again, the four fought more Heartless, dispatching them with little discomfort. Yet again, the four smiled and waved victoriously at their spectators. However, this time, there were three extra audience members watching from the shadows.

"Alright. Those little punks are your next opponents, okay?" The god of the Underworld was speaking to the spiky-haired blonde, who was leaning against the wall, looking at the ground. The black cat, purring against the god Hades' leg, was staring up at the young man expectantly. "Now, don't blow it. Just take him out."

The man looked at him with bored, blue eyes. "…The great god of the Underworld is afraid of a couple of kids? Sorry, but my contract says-" He was cut off by the cat hissing furiously at him. It rose onto its hind legs, and the man watched uninterestedly as the cat grew and grew until, with a flash of green light, it changed into a girl with red hair and a dark green toga dress, and the same black cat ears on the top of her head. He looked at the girl with the same bored expression as she glared at him like he were something disgusting.

"You'll do what Master tells you to, _when_ he tells you to, stupid human!" She hissed. She was about to say more, but Hades put his hand on her head, and she quieted down, still glaring at the man.

"I _know _what your contract says. I _wrote _it. I _know _it says you're only required to kill Hercules in this tournament. But you've gotta fight those kids to get to him. Come on."

The man looked at the four through the bars of the gate.

"Hey, it's like that old goat says." Hades smirked at the man. "Rule number 11: it's all just a game. So let loose and have fun with it!" The man looked back at him, his eyebrow raised. "I mean, a casualty or two along the way is no big deal, right?"

The girl giggled and he patted her head. The man didn't say anything, but got up from leaning on the wall and walked towards the door leading outside. Once he had left, Hades stopped smiling and scowled.

"Geez. Stiffer than the stiffs back home, eh, Orin?"

'Orin' giggled again and nodded.

"Well, still. Suckers like him are hard to come by…"

Orin meowed and with a flash of light she was once again a cat. Hades picked her up, placed her on his shoulder, and disappeared.

* * *

"Man, is this almost done yet?" Reimu was complaining again, though she was really doing it to annoy Sora. Again, they were fighting the annoying little Red Nocturnes and Blue Rhapsodies, which seemed to enjoy freezing, then burning, then freezing again Donald over and over.

"Aw, come on, Reimu!" Sora seemed to be oblivious to Reimu's attempts of annoying him, distracted by how much fun he was having. He and Goofy saved Donald from the Heartless swarming him, who then unleashed a wicked Thunder spell, destroying them all.

"Thanks!" Donald said, healing the two of them, and Reimu as she skipped over to the boys.

"Oh. Is that actually it? Are we done?" Reimu asked, for this time, no cheers resulted from their victory.

"Hey, isn't that-?" Goofy pointed at the other end of the ring, and the four collectively gasped (Reimu especially) as they saw their next opponent.

Tenshi placed the grimoire down next to Phil, and strode over to the side of the ring. She gave a big smile to the four and the man, and began to speak in a suddenly magnified voice.

[BGM: Demystify Feast]

"GODS AND GODDESSES! Here it is, the fight you've all been waiting for! I do hope you all haven't been so bored that Dionysus had to bring out more wine than you should be having!" She laughed, and up above rumbling thunder could be heard from the large cloud. "Our challengers today are a bunch of foreigner rookies who think they can become heroes! All the way from who knows where, I present for your approval Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy!"

Their names were met with the loudest cheers yet, and more rumbling thunder. Tenshi looked over at the young man.

"And over here is a personal favorite!" She lifted her hand towards him, her fingers outstretched. "His sword is bigger than his own body mass, and he knows how to use it!" Either subconsciously or deliberately, she scratched at her arm, where Sora noticed had a rather large scar. Had that been there before…? "Also from who even cares, I give you Cloud Strife!"

Once again, loud, wild cheers and thunder were heard from all around them.

"Is everyone ready?" Tenshi looked from Sora's party to Cloud. "Is everyone set?"

All the participants nodded. Goofy was sure he heard a cat meowing somewhere.

"Then, like cruel angels, become legends!" Tenshi yelled, and skipped back to sit with Phil. Immediately, Cloud rushed forward and slashed at them with his sword. Sora jumped out of the way quickly, and Reimu hadn't been within range of the slash, but Donald and Goofy both got caught in it and flew through the air, hitting a pillar. They quickly got up, shook it off, and ran to help Sora and Reimu.

Sora tried to come at Cloud from behind, but every time he thought he was going to make a hit, the older man swung out with his sword, nearly hitting him. The third time Sora tried it, the sword _did _hit him, sending him flying. Cloud jumped high into the air and gripped the handle of his sword with both hands, and thrust it down into the ground, where Sora's head would have been if Reimu hadn't pulled him away at the last second.

It went on like that for a while. It seemed like all they were doing was running away from Cloud's attacks, while he seemed immune to getting tired at all. Occasionally, Sora looked over to Tenshi and Phil to see if they were going to help at all, but while Phil looked concerned for them, Tenshi just sat back with her arms and legs crossed, with a big smile on her face.

"Fire! Blizzard!" Donald cried out, throwing spell after spell at Cloud. Goofy held his shield tight and spun like a tornado, hitting Cloud over and over again. Sora used this chance to finally successfully hit Cloud from behind, but their good luck wasn't staying with them for long, as Cloud smashed his sword into Goofy's side, sending him flying into the stands behind him, and knocking him out.

"Goofy!" Donald cried. "Don't worry! Cur-" But he couldn't finish the incantation, as he too fell victim to Cloud's sword.

"No!" Reimu reached out towards Donald, but flinched as Cloud slowly turned to her. She couldn't help feeling her cheeks grow hot and blushing as he looked at her, but she snapped out of it as he began to walk towards her. She took a few steps back and raised her _gohei_, while slowly reaching behind her back with her other hand. Cloud lunged at her, but what he didn't expect was for her to lift off into the air, summoning Homing Amulet and attacking him with the amulets.

"Ngh…" He used his sword as a shield, the amulets covering its side. Reimu looked over at Phil and Tenshi, silently asking if what she was doing was okay. Phil was watching her in amazement, but Tenshi answered her unasked question with a smile and a thumbs up. Reimu looked over at Cloud and was satisfied with him still staying behind his sword from her onslaught of amulets, leaving him wide open for Sora to…

"Sora, what are you doing? Now's your chance!" She yelled at him.

Sora was staring intently at Cloud. He knew that now was the ideal time for him to make an attack, but he was worried at what Cloud was capable of. After all, he had already taken out Donald and Goofy, and what if he did attack him now, and Cloud was still able to hit him even with Reimu's onslaught? Then he'd be out and Reimu would be all alone against this guy. If only there were a way to hit him from far awa-

"Fire!" Sora yelled, shooting a ball of fire at Cloud, who grunted as he was hit. He glared over at Sora, and made to run towards him, but was having trouble while shielding himself from the amulets. "Heh, yeah!" Sora laughed. "This is for Donald! Blizzard!" A chunk of ice smacked into Cloud's face. Sora gulped as the ice melted away and he saw Cloud's face, intense and frightening, and to Sora's horror he outright sprinted towards him, ignoring the amulets and making to swing his sword at Sora.

"No!" Reimu flew towards Cloud, stabbing his head with the _gohei_, but he swung at her and she reflexively recoiled. Sora ran for it, haphazardly shooting fire and ice behind him, and hoped to whatever gods were listening that he wouldn't be caught by Cloud.

_This isn't working… I can't do it… We can't beat him without Donald and Goofy! _He thought bitterly, looking over at Donald and Goofy's unconscious bodies. _We're all a team. Reimu and I can't beat this guy by ourselves!_ He heard Reimu yelling something, probably casting Homing Amulet again, but quickly realized much too late that she was yelling at _him_, as with an explosion in his head he figured out that Cloud had caught up to him and his sword had collided with Sora's head. He flew through the air and landed hard on a pillar, and slid down it. The Keyblade clattered to the floor, and he shakily managed to lift himself up onto all fours. He spat something out, and grimaced as he looked at his own blood on the ground. He looked up to see Cloud swinging vainly at Reimu, who was furiously both shooting her amulets and attacking with her _gohei_ at him. Both of them seemed to think that Sora had fallen unconscious, which was fine with him. His head was splitting, and he tentatively reached to where Cloud had hit him. When he brought his hand back, he saw his fingers smeared with blood. He actually felt like crying; the pain was so strong. But no, there was no way he would cry. Heroes didn't cry. And he would prove that he and Reimu and Donald and Goofy were heroes! What was that weird thing Tenshi had said before the fight?

"Like… cruel angels…" He slowly and shakily got up, using the pillar for support. He reached out to the Keyblade, and in a flash of light it returned to his hand. Something felt like it was burning in his pocket, and he curiously opened it to see what it was. He pulled out the medal Reimu had thrown at him earlier, glowing with a bright golden light and seeming to pulsate with energy. He smiled and looked up at the cloud in the sky. "Thanks." He said softly. He looked back at Cloud and Reimu, who both still hadn't noticed him. He slowly raised the Keyblade to the sky. "Like a cruel angel, I will become a legend!" His shout alerted Cloud and Reimu, and they both looked to him, surprised. "THUNDER!" Sora yelled to the heavens, and a blast of lightning shot down, much like Donald had done many times before, straight at Cloud. Completely caught off guard by the spell, he didn't have any time to dodge it, and it hit him straight on. Reimu landed next to Sora, warily watching Cloud. Cloud coughed, and fell onto one of his knees, breathing heavily.

"Ha…had enough?" Reimu asked.

"…" Cloud didn't answer, just looked up at the two of them. He glanced behind them, his eyebrows rising, and sighed. Reimu kept her eyes on him, but Sora looked behind them, and was overjoyed to see Donald and Goofy running towards them, fully awake and healed.

"Sora! What did he do to you?!" Donald cried, seeing the blood. "Cure!" Instantly, Sora felt absolutely perfect, the pain in his head disappearing.

"Heh… I'm alright." Sora put his hands behind his head. "I'm more worried about you guys."

"Aw, Donald fixed us both up right quick!" Goofy said. He looked at Cloud. "Er…"

"…I give." Cloud said. "This is way too much trouble. I didn't sign up for this." He used his sword as an aid to stand up. He looked between Sora and Reimu. "…I can see why he's scared of you." He smiled. "You put up a pretty good fight."

"You did too!" Sora grinned, though he didn't know who Cloud was talking about, and glanced over at Reimu. He stopped himself from laughing when he saw her blushing again, but nearly lost it when Reimu shyly giggled as she agreed. She was acting so out of her normal character he wondered if she had gotten hit on the head as well.

"Well, it's a forfeit, then?" Reimu turned to Tenshi and Phil over in the stands, but was confused as she saw the two spectators looking in surprise and horror at them. She looked back to see what they were staring at, and gasped as a huge black paw seemed to come out of nowhere and crush Cloud to the ground. A monstrous, three-headed dog was standing over them, its jaws snapping and barking wildly. On top of the middle head, a red-haired girl with cat ears and a green dress, surrounded by what looked like floating, flaming skulls, was smirking.

In the shadows of the gate, Hades was talking to no one.

"Oh, right, there was one other rule I forgot: Accidents happen." He smirked and turned away into the darkness. "Orin, make sure they don't survive."

Outside, the cat-eared girl was laughing maniacally.

"Alright, my cute puppy!" She shouted, clapping once. "If we crush these guys, we can carry off their corpses for Master! Now go!" The dog's heads barked together and was about to pounce onto the foursome when it was suddenly stopped and lifted up by a man with a blue cape who had rushed onto the scene.

"Herc!" Phil yelled from the sidelines.

"Heracles you sly devil you!" Tenshi laughed. "Have you been watching the fights this whole time?"

"Not now, Tenshi!" Hercules called back. "Get them out of here!" He motioned with his head to Sora and the others.

Tenshi didn't respond, but she quickly made her way to the four, thrust the grimoire in Reimu's arms, then amazingly grabbed all four of them and quickly carried them to the lobby, with Phil scrambling to follow behind her. With a last look back and nod at Hercules, the satyr followed them inside.

* * *

"What _is _that thing?" Reimu asked, shaking. The six of them were in the lobby, heavily panting and listening to the sounds of Hercules fighting the dog, and the girl's maniacal laughter.

"A bad dog." Tenshi crossed her arms. "Cerberus, the beast who guards the Underworld from intruders. Also the most dangerous of Hades' pets, except maybe for that idiot bird…"

"Hades?" Goofy asked.

"He's bad news." Phil said. "The god of the Underworld. He's always making trouble for Herc and the other gods."

"…Um, what does he look like?" Reimu asked, looking worriedly at Sora. He knew exactly what she was worried about.

"He wears black and his head is covered in blue flames." Tenshi said. "And he always has that stupid cat around. She's his favorite pet, I think."

"…" The four grimaced in unison. To think it was thanks to _him_ that they were able to enter the games in the first place!

"Who was that girl on Cerberus's head?" Sora asked.

"Her? That's Hades' cat. Her name's Rin, I think. She can change forms." Tenshi replied. "But it doesn't matter. Heracles has faced way more dangerous things than this before. He'll beat them both, no sweat!"

"I don't know… It'll be pretty tough to take on both Cerberus and Rin while taking care of that guy…" Phil looked back at the door to the arena worriedly.

"Oh… That's right." Reimu said. "Cloud. I hope he's okay…"

"Well, we'll just have to go see!" Sora said, and made towards the door.

"Hey, now!" Tenshi grabbed his shoulder. "Look, kiddos. I know you want to be heroes and all, but this is something out of your league."

"Come on! We can do it!" Donald said angrily. "Just watch us!"

"We're not afraid." Reimu smiled. "You can decide whether we're hero material or not."

"…" Phil and Tenshi looked at each other, and sighed and giggled respectively.

"Careful, you idiots!" Phil gestured to the door of the arena. The four of them nodded and rushed out into the ring. As they entered, they passed Hercules carrying the unconscious Cloud over his shoulder. He looked at them as he passed and nodded.

"Oh? The great and mighty Hercules is calling in for backup?" Rin laughed. "Fine by me. Cerberus! Let's get through these light snacks before the real feast!" She laughed as Cerberus lunged at them, its three jaws snapping, trying to get a bite out of the four. The boys began attacking the dog, but began having trouble as blue flaming skulls began appearing and ramming themselves into them, distracting them enough that the dog was able to swipe at them and almost gobble up Goofy. "Ha! What are you snacks going to do…?" Rin's laughter stopped short as her skulls were destroyed, and glared over at Reimu, who had summoned Homing Amulet and was slowly floating up into the air, until she was at the same level as Rin. Rin scowled. "So, it's a catfight you want, is it?"

"That was terrible." Reimu said, smirking. "You should stay away from puns."

"It wasn't a- Whatever! Cerberus, just play with those boys!" Rin herself rose up into the air.

_So, she can fly. So that means… _Reimu swallowed. _It's time, then. My first real Spell Card battle…!_

Rin hissed. "I'll drag your corpse back to the Underworld!"

[BGM: Corpse Voyage ~ Be of Good Cheer!]

The two girls began circling each other in the air, ignoring the dog and boys below them. Rin held out her hand, and with a flash of blue flames, a card appeared in her hand. Reimu braced herself.

"Cat Sign: 「Cat's Walk」!" Rin cried, and with a flash of green light she was a cat again, her two black tails twitching angrily. She began leaping through the air as if pushing off against ground, and every time she "landed", a large ring of bullets shot out, which Reimu dodged effortlessly. Rin began jumping all over the air, and the rings began to overlap, and Reimu was having some difficulty dodging them. She calmed herself and began shooting Homing Amulet at the cat, thankful that she could focus on dodging rather than shooting with the amulets' automatic targeting.

On the ground, the boys were having as much difficulty with Cerberus as Reimu was having with Rin. The dog was shooting fire out of its mouths, and while Sora and Donald were able to keep their distance and attack with magic, Goofy kept getting burned by the flames. Eventually he just ran underneath the dog's body to escape the fire… which was a pretty good idea, actually. He began attacking the dog's legs and underbelly, making it furious but effectively getting the job done. Sora and Donald grinned at each other and nodded, and Donald went to join Goofy underneath the dog as Sora stayed behind as a distraction. For a moment, the dog was furiously snapping at the two hiding beneath it, and Sora took that free moment to look up at the bullet fight above them, and marvel at how somewhere in that huge cloud of bullets, Reimu was in there kicking that lame cat's ass.

"Man, I hope the rest of your cards aren't so easy!" Reimu taunted as the bullets disappeared, having successfully captured the card. The truth was that she had been worried for herself during the whole card, since she was fighting against a hostile opponent this time, but she couldn't help taking a stab at the other girl. Rin, turning back into her human-looking form, merely hissed at her and with more blue flames summoned another spell card.

"Cursed Sprite: 「Zombie Fairy」!" Blue bullets began to spiral from Rin towards Reimu. It was an extremely simple pattern- it was literally just a huge spiral of blue; easily dodgeable. But what concerned Reimu about the card was the sudden appearance of what she assumed to be the titular zombie fairies. A sizeable crowd of young looking girls with wings and dead appearances began floating towards her, looking malevolently at her. Reimu raised her eyebrows and began dodging the spiral of blue, and simply shot at the zombie girls- and gasped as they exploded into fast, small bullets. She gasped again as the girls got right back up and started coming after her again.

"Wh-what the hell?!" She shouted. Her amulets were going for the fairies, not Rin, and when they got hit they just made more bullets! How would she capture this spell? She calmed herself and began flying _with _the spiral instead of just dodging it, leading the fairies in a circle (thankfully, they didn't seem to be that smart). This created a huge opening for her to shoot at Rin, and after quite a few rounds, she managed to capture this spell card as well. As her bullets and zombie fairies disappeared, Rin's face got even redder and angrier.

"Hnnngh! Let's see how you like this?!" She snapped and she was surrounded by the blue flaming skulls from before. Another snap, and another card appeared in blue flames. "Malicious Spirit: 「Spleen Eater」!" Bullets began to surround Reimu, and soon she realized there was no way out from them. With a sinking feeling she saw the bullets begin to close in on her, and she frantically looked around for an opening. She saw one, and she shot straight for it, managing to get out of the bullets just in time for them all to hit each other and cause an explosion, then grow outwards again. The same thing happened again, and this time Reimu knew where to go to avoid getting caught. It was another simple but intimidating spell card, but unfortunately, Reimu took quite a bit of time with it, as the bullets suddenly disappeared; the card had timed out. Rin looked upset that Reimu hadn't been hurt by it, but also seemed to be pleased that at least she hadn't managed to capture it.

"Even still…" Reimu smiled to herself. "For a first-time spell card battler, I'm doing pretty well. I wish Alice could see me…"

Down below, the boys were running around wildly. Sora wasn't quite sure what or how the dog had done it, but dark circles had begun to appear on the ground, shooting out spears of dark light. The circles were chasing after them, and they were having a bit of a tough time dodging both them and the fire that Cerberus was shooting out of its mouths.

"Sora! Look out!" Goofy yelled, and Sora rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being smashed by the dog's paws. He grunted as he got hit with a blast of fire and a spear at the same time, but instantly felt relieved as Donald cast Cure on him. The circles eventually stopped appearing, and the boys went back to their previous strategy of each attacking a single head. Finally, after what seemed to be forever, the dog's heads howled and it fell over, unconscious.

"We did it!" Sora yelled happily. He looked up to the sky to see how Reimu was doing. She was looking down at them, clapping and cheering. Rin, on the other hand, looked absolutely mortified that her precious Cerberus had been defeated. She glared at the boys below, and screamed in fury. She held out her arm high into the sky, and a huge burst of blue flame erupted, fading out to reveal one more spell card. Reimu swallowed; this was probably going to be a hellish one.

"_SMALL DEMON'S REVIVAL!_"

Reimu was frozen, unable to think. She was surrounded on all sides by flaming blue bullets, and once again those zombie fairies were coming towards her. Suddenly, her vision was clouded by red; the fairies had let loose enormous red bullets, and they were coming straight at her. She vaguely heard Sora, Donald, and Goofy's yells, and Rin's laughter, and feeling odd just as she was about to be completely submerged in bullets. She vaguely recalled lifting her arm up as everything began to move in slow motion towards her. She vaguely registered that she was yelling something aloud herself.

"_Dream Sign: __「__Evil Sealing Circle__」__!_"

She vaguely remembered seeing all the bullets around her disappear, as she was surrounded by a ring of white. As her consciousness faded, she thought she saw her amulets shooting out from everywhere, but how could that be?

Then she didn't remember anything.

* * *

"Wake up already, you lazy bum!" Sora had been yelling in Reimu's unconscious face for quite some time now. They were all in the lobby- the boys, Phil, Tenshi, and Hercules, though Cloud seemed to have left before Cerberus and Rin had been defeated. And what a defeat it had been; none of them had expected Reimu to use her new spell card so soon, and after Reimu had said that it had needed something else before she could use it! Sora remembered watching in terror as the huge bullets had been about to engulf her, when he heard her shout, and suddenly _she _had been shooting out bullets, and Rin's all disappeared as she had been overcome with the red amulets of the new spell card. Sora still didn't quite understand spell cards, but even still, he was very impressed and awestruck at how powerful they were.

Both Rin and Reimu had fallen to the ground after that, though Reimu was unconscious, and the boys had to catch her before she hit the ground. Rin had seemed to be absolutely exhausted herself, and she had spat out insults and curses at them as she had made her way to Cerberus, and had lifted her arm to the sky; beneath both her and the dog, a huge magic circle had appeared in blue flames, and with a flash of blue light, they had disappeared, and the circle had faded away. The boys had then carried Reimu to the lobby, and had been trying to make her wake up ever since.

"Come on, Reimu! Wakey wakey!" Goofy said, gently shaking her.

"She'll be okay, right?" Donald asked. He had cast Cure on her, but he was getting very worried, as she had still not woken up.

"I'm sure she will be." Tenshi nodded. "She's a tough one! Danmaku isn't lethal anyway, so even that crazy cat's cards wouldn't be able to kill her."

"You know about this stuff?" Sora asked, though he honestly couldn't say he was surprised.

"Sure I do." Tenshi grinned. "I fight with it in tournaments sometimes, and I like to have proper flying battles with some of the denizens of the Underworld."

"Reimuuuuuuuuu." Sora went back to trying to wake the unconscious girl. "Come on, Reimu, Tenshi says you'll be fine… Hey!" He smiled as Reimu's eyes began to twitch. She slowly blinked awake, looking groggily around at everyone.

"Huh…? Wh… What happened? Where… Where's that cat? What…?"

"Good morning." Goofy said happily.

"Morning? Huh?" She shook her head and blinked a few times, and slowly got up. "What happened? Did I win? Is she gone?"

"You did it!" Sora said. "You used your spell card and kicked her butt!"

"_My_?" Reimu said. She held out her hand like she normally did to summon Homing Amulet, but when the familiar flash of light appeared, there were two cards instead of just the one. "Ah…" She looked closely at it. "But… I didn't finish it… It finished _itself_?"

"It must have resonated with you subconsciously." Tenshi crossed her arms. "Tricky magic, spell cards are! You subconsciously knew you were in huge trouble and so you finished your spell card right on the fly! Pretty impressive!" She gave Reimu a thumbs up.

"Ahem." They looked over at Phil and Hercules, who had been politely waiting through their talk of spell cards, but it seemed that Phil was tired of waiting. "You kiddos did pretty impressively out there, so I wanted to say something." He moved closer to the four of them, as Reimu stood up. He coughed importantly. "You have fought for and protected this coliseum well! Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games. Further-"

"Hey! What do you mean 'junior heroes'?" Donald interrupted angrily.

"You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero." Phil replied. Tenshi giggled.

"So, uh, what does it take?" Goofy asked.

"Well, that's just something you'll have to find out for yourselves." Hercules said with a smile.

"Yeah, like Heracles did!" Tenshi added.

"No problem." Sora said confidently. "We'll start by proving ourselves in the games!" Donald and Goofy nodded excitedly with him. Phil, Hercules, and Tenshi glanced at Reimu, who was shaking her head slightly and looking at them with pleading eyes. She was _done _with this place. Phil grinned and winked at her.

"There ain't gonna be any games for a while. Gotta clean up the mess from what you guys just did first."

Reimu beamed at him. The boys didn't notice.

"Okay, we'll be back, then." Sora waved at them. "C'mon, guys." He, Donald, and Goofy headed out the door. Reimu hung back, and bowed to the three others.

"Thank you all so much for your time. And…" She rose from the bow. "You guys wouldn't happen to have seen any kids around our age named Riku, Marisa, or Kairi, have you…?"

They shook their heads. She sighed, thanked them again, and left.

"Hm. I wonder who they are." Tenshi said.

"Probably just some friends." Hercules answered. Phil was silent.

"What's the matter?" Tenshi looked over at him.

"I still can't believe those guys were able to take down two of Hades' pets."

Hercules leaned towards him. "Just between us three, I'd already worn Cerberus down by the time the little guy jumped in. And Rin's the weakest out of Hades' pets, too…"

"Our lips are sealed." Phil said, and Tenshi nodded with a giggle.

* * *

"What took you?" Sora asked Reimu as she hopped down the steps. The boys had been about to leave when they realized Reimu wasn't with them, and had been waiting for her.

"Sorry." She replied.

The four of them started towards the gates. They were so engrossed in their cheerful conversation that they didn't notice Cloud, sitting on the stone steps leading out of the coliseum, until Sora stepped close to him and he edged away.

"Oh!" Reimu said, her cheeks becoming a bit pinker. Sora grinned. "Are you okay?"

Cloud looked up at her, then at the others. "Yeah." He simply said, quietly.

"Hey, you were working with that Hades guy, right?" Sora asked. "Why did you go along with him, anyway?"

Cloud rested his chin on his hands. "I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired." He stood up. "I fell into darkness, and I couldn't find the light."

"You'll find it!" Reimu said. "We're searching, too."

"For your light?" Cloud smiled at her, and Sora thought her face would turn as red as her clothes. "Don't lose sight of it." Suddenly, the gates behind him opened, and they all turned and backed away as someone came through, singing very loudly in a slurred voice.

"Pettaaaaaan! Pettaaaaaaaaaaaan! Tssssssssurupettaaaaaaaaan!" A girl swinging around a large purple gourd stumbled towards them. She had bright orange hair, a purple toga dress, and she was covered with chains and shackles. But what struck everyone the most about the strange girl were the huge horns coming out of her head.

"Uh… Do ya need help, miss?" Goofy asked.

"Huh? Lord Oyassssssshiro?" She looked up at him, her face bright red. Was this young girl…?

"…She's drunk." Cloud said. The girl looked over at him.

"Hey. Hey hey hey hey hey hey. 'Sh thish…. 'S thish the colisssssssseum?"

"Yes." Reimu said.

"Yahoo! Made it!" The girl yelled happily. "I told her, I told her I woooooould! I tooooooold that Tenkoooooooooooo!"

"Tenshi?" Sora asked. He suddenly remembered their first meeting with Tenshi. Hadn't she left the coliseum to go talk to someone? Could this drunken girl have been invited? The girl began singing again, even louder than before, stumbling towards the doors to the lobby.

"…" Cloud sighed. "I should probably help her before she hurts herself." He effortlessly picked her up with one arm, and walked towards the lobby, the girl laughing with glee. He looked back over his shoulder to them. "See you around."

"Goodbye!" Reimu said, a little too quickly, and she blushed and turned away towards the gates, embarrassed. Sora rolled his eyes at Donald and Goofy.

"Let's go, before anything else super weird happens."

Donald and Goofy laughed, and the three boys followed the embarrassed girl out of the world.

* * *

Soon after they had left, everything went dark, and something super weird happened.

"He's strong, he's kind." A model of Hercules was flexing its muscles and smiling. "He's always there for you, and he's handsome to boot." The model crossed its arms and nodded, standing in Hades' hand. The cat on his shoulder was staring at it with slanted eyes. "He's perfect. Perfect. Perfectly infuriating!" He tossed the model to the ground, where the cat leapt down to and began biting its head off. "He makes me crazy!" Hades yelled, and his normally blue color scheme turned into a fiery red. Flames erupted everywhere from his body, lighting up the dark coliseum with hot fire.

The cat morphed into Rin. "M-master, please calm down. I failed you this time, but don't worry! You still have plan B, right?"

Hades turned to her and scratched her head.

"Yeah, yeah. We let Hercules and those idiots train the kids. In the next games, I'll take care of them all." Rin meowed, and he chuckled darkly, but stopped as Rin began to hiss. He looked behind him to see a woman in dark clothes and a small, blonde girl in a black dress standing close behind her, holding on to her robes. "Who invited you to the party? Stay out if this. This is my show."

"As you wish." The woman said. "Fight to your heart's content." She turned from him and walked away. The blonde child, still holding the woman's robes, followed while looking back with curious red eyes at Hades and Rin, who were glaring after them.

* * *

**Sorry for the evangelion references (I'm not sorry)**

**What? This didn't take another month to complete? It is a Christmas miracle. Good job, me.**

**And congratulations Reimu, you have discovered death-bombing. What a wonderful game mechanic it is. And just like the game mechanic, it will be very rare that you actually manage to pull it off, so you probably don't want to rely on it.**

**And Rin cheated, of course. Here we were, having a nice normal leveled fight, and then she decided to whip out a lunatic level card? Shame on you, cat.**

**And we get the appearances of a drunk girl, a woman in black, and a cute little girl! Who could these mysterious ladies be? Who?!**

**Next up is... I don't know. Either Deep Jungle or Youkai Mountain. Or maybe I'll combine the two? (No) **

**Wait. Better idea. You guys tell me. Shall I stick to the normal Kingdom Hearts formula and go to DJ and then YM, or would you like a little variety and have it YM then DJ? I mean, either way we're going to get to them and I'm gonna write this shit but you know. Reader input and all that. **

**I notice I've been getting these kids bloody a lot. What? What. That's going to be a regular thing. I might as well rename this to "Cute Kids Getting Beat Up and Bloody All the Time".**

**Maybe I'll start drawing pictures for this and putting them up on my tumblr or something. I'll let you guys know if I decide to not be so lazy and do that. **

**Comments, questions and suggestions always appreciated! Thanks for reading! uwu**


	12. Youkai Mountain - Mysterious Heartless

"Hm…" Sora leaned back in his chair, looking out of the windows of the Gummi ship. "Two worlds, and we haven't seen any signs of Riku, Marisa, Kairi, or your King…"

"Well, let's not get too down about it." Donald replied. "After all, there are a bunch of worlds out there!"

"Yeah!" Goofy nodded. "We'll find 'em eventually!"

"Are we any closer to another world?" Reimu asked. "We've been dodging those Heartless ships for ages. I'm so boooored."

"You guys just don't know how to be patient, do you?" Donald grumbled. "We'll find a new world when we find a new world! Stop complaining!"

"Well, what do ya know!" Goofy pointed at the monitor excitedly. "Look, fellas! We found a new world!"

"No thanks to the complainer." Donald muttered.

Reimu pouted. "I heard that."

"You were supposed to."

The two glared at each other, then both burst out laughing.

"Okay, okay. I'll try not to complain so much." Reimu got up and moved to the monitor, as did Sora. "What's this world called?"

"'Youkai Mountain'?" Sora read. "Youkai, like Alice and Tewi and Wriggle?"

"Seems like it." Donald said.

"A whole world of youkai…" Reimu grinned. "Should be interesting."

"I hope they're friendly." Goofy said happily.

Not to long after they had entered the world itself, they landed in a dark forest. The four travelers looked around at the trees surrounding them from all sides, taking in the forest air and sounds.

"It's hard to see, but it's quite pretty here." Reimu said.

"I think it's fall here!" Sora said excitedly. "Look at all the leaves on the ground!"

"Hey, you're right!" Goofy said. He and Sora began shuffling fallen leaves with their feet, making little piles, and kicking them, sending the leaves floating down through the air. Donald bonked the two of them on the heads with his staff.

"Cut that out!"

"…Do you guys hear that?" Reimu said, looking around. The boys stopped their roughhousing and listened. In the distance, they could hear faint crashing, and what sounded like someone screaming.

"Someone's in trouble!" Sora cried.

"Let's go!" Donald said, and the four of them began running in the direction of the noise.

[BGM: Road of the Misfortune God ~ Dark Road]

As they made their way through the trees, Sora became aware that they weren't alone. On the ground he saw the familiar unnatural shadows of Heartless, and he quickly summoned the Keyblade as they began to rise from the ground. The four of them were beating them easily, but soon some trouble came as Heartless they hadn't seen before appeared. They vaguely resembled crows, but were dark red and their beaks opened to reveal lots of sharp teeth. The emblem that was on many of the Heartless was on their backs, and they began diving into them, biting at them.

"No! No, stop it!" Reimu yelled angrily, smacking the birds with her _gohei_. She glared over at Sora. "Some of that magic you've got would be pretty helpful, here!"

"Sorry!" He held the Keyblade up in the air. "Thunder!" Lighting hit the two birds attacking Reimu, and the birds exploded into black smoke. After a while all the Heartless were destroyed, and they continued their trek through the forest towards the sound of screaming. They all kept their weapons out at the ready- most likely, the sounds were a result of a native being attacked by Heartless.

They reached a clearing, and were unsurprised to see that that was exactly the case. A girl with green hair and a red dress was being towered over by probably the most frightening Heartless they had seen so far. It looked like a huge wolf, but instead of fur it was covered in dark red feathers, much like the birds they had seen earlier. Its teeth were uneven, huge, and looked incredibly sharp. Bright red, orange, and yellow leaves were littered all over its body, providing a striking contrast in color, and its claws were bright yellow, like its eyes. It raised its paw, claws gleaming, and swiped down, aiming at the girl's heart.

"Fire!" Two blasts of fire hit the wolf's paw, from both Sora and Donald. The wolf leapt back and snarled at them, and the two of them rushed in to beat at the Heartless. Reimu leapt into the air and began shooting Homing Amulet at the wolf, and Goofy ran to the girl, helped her up, and pulled her out of harm's way. The wolf snapped at Sora and Donald, but the combined attack of theirs and Reimu's made it turn and run, smashing through trees and causing quite a commotion.

"Quick, before it gets away!" Reimu said, beginning to fly after it.

"Right!" Sora yelled, with him and Donald following.

"Let's go, Goofy!" Donald called over his shoulder. Goofy scratched his head.

"You fellers go on ahead." He motioned at the girl. "Don't worry! I'll meet up with ya!"

Donald looked hesitant to leave Goofy behind, but he nodded and hastened his pace to keep up with Sora and Reimu.

Goofy knelt down to the girl and smiled. "Hello! I hope you're okay."

"Oh, thank you…" The girl said, returning the smile. "Y-yes, I'm quite alright. That monster didn't hurt me. Gave me quite the scare, though…" She rubbed her arms, one of which was wrapped in frilly ribbon. "I've never seen such a thing here in the forest… and those smaller creatures that appeared with it…" She frowned. "They definitely aren't youkai. What on earth are they…?"

"Oh, they're called Heartless!" Goofy said. "They're mean ol' monsters that're tryin' to steal people's hearts and destroy worlds!"

"Wh- Hearts? Destroy worlds?!" The girl asked, shocked. "How- How do you know that? Who are you?"

"I'm Goofy. Those other fellas were my friends, Donald, Sora, and Reimu. We're travelin' around, beating Heartless up and saving the worlds! Urk!" He suddenly brought his hands to his mouth. He wasn't supposed to be telling people that! Donald was going to get mad at him!

"…Is it supposed to be a secret?" The girl asked. She smiled. "Well, as thanks for saving me from that creature, I promise I won't tell anyone." She stood up. "Well, Goofy, it's nice to meet you. My name is Hina Kagiyama. It was good fortune that we met here!"

"Sure was!" Goofy stood up as well. "Are you a youkai?"

"I am a goddess, actually. A goddess who collects the misfortune of others. Though, I don't blame you for thinking of me as a youkai. This is the Great Youkai Forest, after all."

"Great Youkai Forest?" Goofy asked. "I thought this was Youkai Mountain."

"Oh, we're at the base of the mountain." Hina looked concerned. "You and your friends weren't meaning to go to the mountain, were you? It's forbidden for non-youkai! It's much too dangerous!"

"Gawrsh, we've handled a lot of dangerous stuff already. Is it really that bad?"

Hina rested her hand on her cheek, contemplating. "Well… it is very dangerous. But, seeing you handle that monster… and you claim to have been beating up more of things like it… I wonder." She looked him up and down, then smiled, making a decision. "Well… normally it is my job to chase away non-youkai from the mountain so they won't get hurt… but you all helped me, so I shall help you." She spun around, for some reason. "We must catch up with your friends! We need to help them destroy that monster so it doesn't go after anyone else's heart!"

"Gee, thanks, Miss Hina!" Goofy spun around, too. "We better skedaddle quick!" He began to run in the direction the others had, but suddenly and surprisingly tripped on _nothing_, and landed smack in a tree. "G-gawrsh…" He stumbled getting up, rubbing his face.

"Oh… Oh, no, I forgot." Hina looked apologetic. "Since I'm a goddess of misfortune, I collect people's bad luck… but then that bad luck affects anyone who comes near me…"

"Oh. Well, uh… What should we do?"

"How about I just follow you a little far away from you?" And she lifted into the air.

"Oh! You can fly like Reimu! Can you use spell cards?"

"Ah? Yes, I do!" She smiled. "When we catch up with your friends, if they haven't destroyed that monster already, I'll show you what I can do, hm?"

"Okie dokie! It's a promise!" Goofy said cheerfully, and with Hina trailing at a safe distance behind him, he followed the path that the wolfish Heartless had left behind.

* * *

"This thing's pretty unwilling to just give up!" Reimu said, annoyed. They had caught up with the wolf, and had been attacking it for a while, but no matter what they did, they just couldn't slow it down. It was as if their attacks had no effect, and they were just a hindrance to the wolf instead of a real threat. It snapped at them, tried to slash at them with its claws, and tried to stomp on them, but mostly, it just tried to escape from them.

"Oh no, you don't! Thunder!" Donald cried, and a bolt of lightning struck the wolf right on the head… but it still didn't do anything. The wolf howled, a long, piercing shriek, and the three of them fell to the ground (a more dangerous thing for Reimu), covering their ears, unable to move. The wolf sniffed the air, then looked directly at Sora. It bared its fangs and advanced on him, slamming its paw onto him and pinning him down.

"Ngh-!" Sora couldn't breathe, couldn't move- and worst of all, he was once again feeling that familiar feeling of sickness that had come over him before, in the cave with the mysterious man and before they had fought the huge Heartless in Wonderland. The wolf's teeth came down on him-

"Won't let you-!" Reimu cried out, having gotten up, and slammed herself into the wolf's head, stabbing at its eye with her _gohei_. Donald unleashed a blast of fire into the wolf's face, and it yelped in pain. It stumbled back, and howled again, making the three unable to move- but instead of attacking this time, it turned and fled once again, crashing through the trees. The three of them got up, and Donald quickly healed them all.

"Are you okay?" He asked Sora.

"Y-yeah… Why'd it only go for me?" He coughed. "You guys were closer to it. I would've thought… N-no offense, or anything!" He quickly shook his head.

"It must be because of the Keyblade. I mean, it makes you the 'chosen one' or whatever, right?" Reimu said.

"…" Sora looked down the path of wreckage that the wolf had left in its escape. "It sure is making a big mess. We need to get rid of it as soon as we can!" He took a deep breath. The feeling of sickness had finally passed, but it only made him more troubled. Why did it keep happening? He had never had a history of being prone to sickness before. Was it solely because of the Heartless? And if so, then what about the man in the cave? He couldn't have been a Heartless… could he?

"It'll have to wait." Donald brought him out of his thoughts. "We need to find Goofy! I don't like the thought of him being alone in a place like this."

"Aw, you weren't too worried about me, were ya Donald?"

"Of course not, you dummy… wait, huh?" The three of them whirled around to see Goofy coming down the path they had come from, followed by the girl they had seen earlier, who was…spinning? She was spinning through the air, a short distance away from him.

"Boy, that Heartless is givin' us some trouble, huh?" Goofy stated, looking down the path it had made. He frowned. "I hope it doesn't hurt anybody else before we can catch it."

"If we manage to catch it in the forest, we won't have to worry. Not many youkai actually live in here, as they live more on the mountain itself." The girl landed next to Goofy. "Ah, thank you all for helping me earlier. My name is Hina." She twirled and curtsied.

"Ahyulk! You sure do like to spin!" Goofy laughed.

"It's a hobby." Hina smiled.

"…Anyway, that thing moves fast. We need to go after it now if we want to catch it before it goes up the mountain." Reimu said, lifting off into the air. But suddenly, something very odd happened. A thick branch abruptly fell, nearly hitting Reimu, though she just barely dodged it. "Wh-what?"

"Oh…" Hina looked very sorry. "You all better go ahead. I'll follow from a safe distance."

"What…?" Sora asked, but Goofy explained the situation of Hina's powers, and the other three nodded in understanding. "Okay. Let's go!" Sora led the way down the path of wrecked trees, with Hina following behind far enough where her presence would not give them bad luck.

The chase was pretty quiet. Heartless did appear every once in a while, but it wasn't so much that they had any trouble. The scenery of the forest was unchanging; it was just as dark as it had been when they arrived, and the thick foliage above them blocked any sunlight that may have been shining. At least they didn't have to wander around lost through the trees- the path of wreckage left by the wolf showed no signs of ceasing, so at least they could be sure that the Heartless hadn't just disappeared as other Heartless had done.

"We might as well just call this thing 'Wreck-It Wolf'." Sora said, breaking their silence. The others laughed.

"Thankfully, no hostile youkai have appeared to hinder us." Hina called from behind them. "Either they're scared of the monster, or they see that you're with me. But either way, we shouldn't have to worry about them."

"That's good to hear." Reimu said. "We're already behind enough as it is without anybody else coming to mess with us…"

"Are we ever even gonna catch up with this thing?" Donald said. "We haven't seen it at all since it ran."

"…" Hina looked concerned. "…If we keep going this way…"

"Huh? Did ya say somethin', Miss Hina?" Goofy looked back at her.

"…It's just, if we continue down this path, we'll reach the edge of the forest, and we'll be at the foot of the mountain itself…"

"Oh, that's good! We'll be able to actually see where we're going!" Reimu said.

"No, it's not good. There are incredibly dangerous and unfriendly youkai on the mountain, and they won't take kindly to seeing you all climbing it."

"But, you said that since you're with us…" Sora said, confused.

Hina shook her head. "My influence only really extends to those who live in this forest. On the mountain itself I'm just as unwelcome as you all are, because… well, because of the same reason I'm keeping away from you all."

"Oh…" Sora frowned. It didn't seem fair. It wasn't Hina's fault that unlucky things happened around her.

"Well, I guess those mountain youkai are just gonna have to deal with all of us." Reimu said. "Since we're trying to save them in the first place, after all."

"They're a very stubborn bunch. You actually remind me of them." Hina laughed.

"Eh? What are you saying?" Reimu frowned, stopping her flight to pout at her.

"Reimu, is there something you're not telling us?" Sora grinned. "Have you secretly been a youkai this whole time? That would totally explain why you can fly!"

Reimu pouted at him, too.

"Quit dawdling! Do you guys wanna lose it even more?" Donald said angrily, continuing down the path without them.

"Whoops." Reimu giggled and they continued on their way.

* * *

"This is it."

The five of them stared up at the landmass in front of them, their eyes adjusting to the sudden sunlight. Now that they were out of the dark forest, they could see how absolutely breathtaking the scenery was; clear waters of rivers and waterfalls, bright red, orange, and yellow leaves covering the trees, the sound of birdsong filling the air… the only thing taking away from the beautiful nature sight was the ugly path of wreckage left by the Heartless, which had abruptly stopped right in the middle of the clearing which they were now standing in.

"Damn it…" Reimu kicked at the torn up grass. "Why did it suddenly disappear here?"

"It must've been the sun!" Goofy said, pointing up at it. "It probably got so used'ta runnin' around in the dark it didn't expect to run right into the light and it got scared!"

"A plausible theory." Hina was kneeling down, feeling the ruined ground. "This poor grass… I hope the goddess of the harvest can fix it. She'll be quite upset…"

"So we don't know where it is now." Donald huffed. "Great."

"Should we just go ahead and climb the mountain?" Sora asked. "Even if the youkai aren't friendly, if we just ask around a little and promise to leave, do you think they'd be helpful?"

"Unfortunately, I doubt it." Hina stood up. "You won't even get a chance to ask them- they'll just attack to get us off the mountain." She slowly turned towards the trees and narrowed her eyes. "In fact…" She said, her voice quickly quieting, "They seem to already know we're here, considering there's a scout over there."

They all quickly turned to where Hina was looking. There was a river flowing a little ways away, its banks lined with bushes and trees. It seemed deserted, however.

"Huh? There's no one there." Reimu said. Hina smiled a tiny bit.

"So, this is that 'optical camouflage' I've been hearing so many whispers about, then? I must say, I'm impressed." Hina spoke loudly, moving closer to the river. "You kappa always outdo yourselves with every new invention, don't you?" She grinned wider, stepping closer a spot right between the river and a tree. "But, I wonder, is it really a fail-safe disguise…?"

Suddenly, there was a flash of blue, a crackling noise, and a despairing cry. The spot Hina had been speaking to, which had been empty before, was suddenly occupied by a strange-looking girl. Her twin-tailed hair, eyes, and clothing were all blue, and she wore a hat and backpack which were green. She looked absolutely terrified.

"Oh. Sorry about that. What bad luck!" Hina giggled. "Hello, Nitori. I really am sorry. I didn't think it'd be you coming to spy on us."

"H-Hinaaa!" 'Nitori' whined. "Y-you didn't need to break it… A-and!" Her face had gone very red as she looked at the four walking up to them. "Wh-what are you doing letting _humans _come through? And… uh… whatever they are." She looked over Donald and Goofy.

"Now, Nitori, please don't run away. They're my friends." Hina motioned at each of them as she said their names. "Everyone, this is my friend Nitori. Probably the only inhabitant of Youkai Mountian who doesn't hate me."

"Hina!" Nitori pouted. "You're not hated… It's just…"

"I'm a liability, I know. I don't mind. But, Nitori, I must ask you a favor."

"No." Nitori immediately said.

"But, I haven't even…"

"No." Nitori crossed her arms. "I like you a lot, Hina. And I take lots of risks to hang out with you. But I know exactly what you're gonna ask!" She frowned at the others. "No, I will not these guys in the mountain! Do you know what the other youkai will do to them- and _us- _if they smell them? I mean-" she wrung her hands around. "You guys are chasing that huge monster, right?"

"Ah! You saw it?" Donald interrupted.

"How could I not? It came crashing out of the forest and ruined such nice grass and then just flat-out jumped up the mountain! It was so scaaaaaary!" She stomped her foot angrily. "I'm sure the tengu will handle it, and if worst comes to worst I bet that newcomer will be able to get it, so just make these humans go home and don't worry about it!"

"But you don't understand!" Sora said. "That's not just any monster! We're the only ones who know how to take care of it!"

"Ha! Humans like you?" Nitori laughed. "No way. You're in way over your head. Come on, this is for your own protection. This mountain is way to dangerous."

"Okay, I'm getting pretty sick of hearing that." Reimu glared at her. "You and her," she motioned at Hina with her head, "keep talking about how dangerous this mountain is, and how tough the youkai here are, and blah, blah, blah."

"Because it is!" Nitori said.

"Well here's the thing." Reimu smirked. "We're not ordinary humans. Hina can attest to that, can't you?" She looked over at Hina, who nodded.

"Nitori… Please, believe me. It's my job to scare away humans to protect them isn't it? Don't you think I wouldn't try to take some up the mountain unless I had a really good reason to?"

"…" Nitori looked the four of them over. "…" She took off her cap and scratched the top of her head, then set the hat back in place. "…" She traced her finger around the key that was tied to the straps of her backpack, resting right in the middle of her chest. "…" She pouted at Hina.

"Nitori… we don't have time for this." Hina clasped Nitori's hands in hers. "That monster isn't just a wild animal. It _will _attack any living thing it sees, and will try to steal their _heart_. These four have been hunting monsters just like it, and only want to protect the mountain's inhabitants, and we desperately need to get them up there to find the beast before it does something terrible! Please, my dear friend, help us!"

Nitori's extremely worried face looked from Hina, to the four, then to the ground. She sighed.

"…Fine. You're lucky I like you so much, you dizzy loon."

"Oh, thank you so much! You're too kind!" Hina spun around happily.

"Great! So you'll guide all of us?" Sora asked.

"No." Nitori said.

"Huh?" Goofy scratched his head, confused. "But, uh, you said you'd help us…"

"I'll lead you four up the mountain." Nitori nodded at them, then looked sadly at Hina. "But… I'm sorry, Hina. It'd be really pushing it to let you come. I can take these guys to the village, and I don't think the other kappa will mind too much if I explain the situation, but if I brought you along…"

"I understand." Hina curtsied. "It's probably better for me not to come anyway. I might cause the monster to get away again, or cause you guys to get hurt…" She shook her head. "I won't allow that to happen. I'll go back to the forest."

"Wh- no!" Sora said angrily.

"It's not fair! Why does everything have to be so against you?" Reimu clenched her fists.

"It's alright! Really!" Hina smiled sadly.

"She's your friend, isn't she?" Sora asked Nitori. "Why don't you break the rules for her? That's what friends do!"

"Sora, please don't." Hina said sharply, shocking everyone. "Nitori is in the right. Me coming along would only hurt what already little chances you have with getting up the mountain and finding that beast. And you need to move quickly! We've already wasted so much time talking about this, when we could have been using this time to look for it!" She looked at Nitori. "My dear friend, I leave it to you. Please aid these children as best you can." She looked at the 'children'. "You four were so kind to help me. I hope I've equally returned the favor."

"You're great." Sora smiled at her. "I wish you could come with us… but if this is what has to happen…"

Hina spun and curtsied. "I will wait here for your return." She clasped her hands together. "I wish you good luck!"

"We better go." Nitori turned and walked into the river… or rather, _onto _the river. Somehow, as she stepped onto the water, the laws of physics failed to apply and she walked on the water as if it were the ground. She turned back to them and grinned. "Well? Come on! If we stick to the river, we won't have to deal with so many other youkai. We'll be at my village in no time!"

"And your village… is that high on the mountain?" Donald asked, tentatively stepping onto the river as well.

"Well… no. We're at the base of the mountain, because the tengu aren't too friendly with us. But we'll be able to ask if anyone's seen the monster by any of the rivers or waterfalls, and we'll be able to get some more tech to help us out, since _someone _messed up the camouflage I had…" She glanced at Hina, who had sat down beneath the tree by the river and smiled apologetically. "Hey, come on! Don't worry about the water, I won't let you drop!"

"Oh… it's you doing this?" Sora cautiously walked onto the water, Goofy following him.

"Yep! I can make water do whatever I want! Pretty cool, huh? Have you humans ever seen anything like it?" She looked very pleased with herself.

"No. It's pretty amazing, though." Reimu said. "Though, I'd rather not get my feet wet, so…" She floated into the air above the river instead.

"Ah-! A human who can fly?!" Nitori's eyes widened.

"What? Haven't you kappa ever seen anything like it?" Reimu laughed.

Nitori looked like she was going to be mad, but instead, she smiled.

"Well, well, well. If all of you have surprises like this, I think the mountain won't be as bad for you guys after all!"

The five of them waved back at Hina a final time, and quickly made their way upstream.

* * *

Hina watched as they turned down a curve in the river and disappeared. She leaned back against the tree she sat underneath.

"…Of course. It was silly of me to even think I would be anything other than a hindrance." She sighed. "This is what I get, I suppose. After all, I did take quite a lot of misfortune from them, so it makes sense that I get the short end of the stick while they go on ahead…" She smiled to herself. "…Those humans are something, though. They'll be able to beat that monster… 'Heartless', was it? They'll definitely kill it and protect the youkai on the mountain!"

"Do you honestly believe such a ridiculous notion?"

The cold voice came from nowhere, and Hina jumped. She stood and looked around, but saw no one.

"Who's there?" She called out.

"You poor thing. Hated for something you cannot control, despised by the one person you call a friend… All the misfortune you take from others only hurts you, and for what reward? Only a broken heart."

"What? Who are you? What are you saying?" Hina spotted something moving in the darkness of the Youkai Forest. She cautiously walked towards it, summoning a spell card in her hand. "Show yourself!"

"Do not lie to yourself, child. You detest the hatred you receive, after all the work you put into taking away others' misfortunes… You truly desire to make others feel the pain you have for so long."

Hina stopped dead in her tracks. The voice had come from right behind her. She quickly whirled around and made to shout out the name of her spell card, but as she faced the woman in black behind her, the woman touched where her heart was with her index finger, and Hina suddenly froze. She felt like her insides were fire, a terrible, burning feeling coursing throughout her body-

Her vision blurred and she felt herself falling backward, soon seeing nothing but blackness as something terrible happened to her. She was alone, she was frightened- she wanted to be back in the sunlight, back with those humans, back with her dear only friend Nitori-

_What do I want…? Misfortune…? A broken heart…?_

_What I want…_

_What I want… _

_What I want… is for everyone to suffer…?_

_No, no, that's not what I want! That's not that's not that's not that's not that's-_

…_Isn't it… though…?_

_Don't I want to punish those uppity youkai who never give me a chance?_

_Don't I want to give everyone misfortune for once?_

_Didn't Sora say friends break rules for each other? Why won't Nitori ever take a chance for me?_

…_Nitori… could it be… you were never my friend at all…?_

_Am I really just alone in this world…?_

Hina lay on the ground, unmoving. The woman watched, smiling, as the dark influence took its toll on the goddess's heart, twisting its light into one of darkness. Yes, this experiment was going perfectly. If this could work on a lesser goddess, imagine what could happen if she tried a more powerful dose on the one on top of the mountain after the Heartless was through with her! And better yet, this one would provide an excellent distraction for those four so-called 'heroes'.

The woman turned to the shade of the trees behind them, where the little girl in the black dress with the red ribbon in her hair was watching, keeping away from the sunlight.

"Alright, my child." The woman strode over to her and took her hand. "All we need to do now is wait and watch."

The little girl tilted her head and stared at the twitching Hina.

"We ought to leave now, little one. Things are about to get quite unlucky for anyone around this one." The woman chuckled, and the two turned away and disappeared into a different darkness from the dark of the forest.

* * *

**oh nooooooooooooo**

**hello everyone, it's me, Frost! and it's 10:43 at night ha ha haaaaaaa**

**so I decided literally as soon as I posted the last chapter that I wanted to do Youkai Mountain and then every one of you was like "yo do youkai mountain" so here we are**

**so uh? yeah things are happening**

**I made up new Heartless for this! the crows and the huge wolf which I have decided its name is literally wreck-it wolf because hell yeah**

**and! um! remember that stuff I said last time about me putting up pictures and stuff for this? well I did that! on my profile I put the url to my tumblr and specifically the tagged section for things pertaining to this story and now you can see what I'm trying to go for with my descriptions for when the touhou ladies are in different outfits from their canon ones! and I'll put up more stuff too like when I make up more Heartless and I dunno maybe I'll illustrate some scenes sometimes. eh we just don't know.**

**next time: I make stuff up concerning how youkai societies work and something happens with Hina**

**booyeah**


	13. Daughter of Curses' Kappa: Candid Friend

[BGM: The Gensokyo the Gods Loved]

"This place sure is pretty!" Goofy said, admiring the vibrantly colored trees lining the banks of the river.

"This place is a paradise untouched by anything that would want to harm the natural order of things." Nitori skipped backwards, facing them. She had been rather quiet at the beginning of their walk; for all her big talk before, without her friend Hina there, she obviously felt shy and uncomfortable around these four strangers, but she seemed to be warming up to Goofy a lot. "And though that includes humans… I don't think you'll ruin the environment or anything while you're here."

"What is it with you and humans?" Sora asked, looking down at the fish swimming underneath his feet. "What's so bad about us?"

"Th-there's nothing _bad_!" Nitori shook her head quickly. "It's just, this place is really dangerous for humans. You're a pretty wimpy species. …I mean no offense!" She waved her hands around, distressed. "I-I mean compared to youkai! I mean, you're the bottom of the food chain, and a youkai's favorite snack!"

"W-what?!" Sora looked up, shocked.

"Huh? Youkai eat humans?" Donald asked, his eyes wide. He looked over at Goofy, who seemed to be thinking of their own youkai friend back home as well.

"Oh yeah. Alice mentioned that to me." Reimu said, floating lower to them. "I must've forgotten to tell you guys. But we're strong, so we don't have to worry about any danger like that," she looked pointedly at Nitori, "so you can just quit bringing it up. Just watch, we'll prove it to you eventually."

"Yeah. Things seem to be turning out that way for us a lot." Sora smiled, his initial shock gone.

"…" Nitori pouted. She turned around and continued down the river. Reimu rolled her eyes at Sora. There was just no getting through to this girl.

"We haven't been attacked by anything in a while." Sora noted, not wanting to keep the awkward silence going.

"I'm not complaining." Donald said, reaching up to catch a falling leaf. "Hey, Nitori, when are we supposed to get to your village, anyway?"

"It'll be a little bit." Nitori replied. "All we have to do is follow the river, though, so it won't be too long."

"So, are all kappa as smart as you?" Goofy asked. "You made that camo-thingy, after all."

"Heh!" Nitori turned around to walk backwards again, facing them, with a big smile on her face. "Yeah! We're a race of technological geniuses!" She looked proud of herself. "We even have a festival every year devoted to showing the other youkai of the mountain the best things we've made, and we sell 'em. I'm gonna show my optical camouflage this year, once I've made the proper modifications, and hopefully Hina-proofed it." She giggled.

"…Hey, what's the deal with Hina, anyway?" Reimu asked. "Is her power really so bad you guys can't let her up on the mountain every once and a while?"

That was not the right question to ask, as Nitori's cheerful face fell, and she stopped walking. She looked down at the water beneath them.

"…Hina isn't really that dangerous." She bit her lip. "It's just… there are so many superstitions about her that everyone believes in here. And Hina doesn't do anything to change people's opinions about her, even when they're dead wrong." She turned around and slowly continued down the river. "Up here on the mountain, it's common to blame simple bad things that happen on Hina. 'My bomb didn't go off, I must've looked at the _curse girl_ accidentally'. 'My cucumbers didn't turn out well, _that girl_ must've snuck in and touched them'. 'His house got flooded, it must've been _that goddess_'." Nitori rubbed her eye. "Things that Hina couldn't have possibly had anything to do with, and they all just blame her for it. Everyone's convinced that just looking at her will make them have bad luck. They won't give her a chance." She looked back at them, her eyes red. "There's a game up here, actually. They call it the 'Fortune Test'. Go into the Great Youkai Forest and try to find Hina. If you can steal one of her spell cards and come back without anything bad happening to you, you win."

"Steal?" Reimu asked, her eyes wide. "Not _capture_?"

"'Capturing' would imply that you were playing a fair spell card battle." Nitori said, turning away. "These stupid young kids just go and attack her and take her cards."

"Th-that's horrible!" Sora yelled. Off in the distance, some crows cawed from the trees. "How can they just do that?!"

"It's supposed to give a message that we don't ever want to see her on the mountain, since they started up when she would actually try going up." Nitori said quietly. "But they kept doing it even after she got the message and stopped trying. I guess we thought that we were some kind of heroes, conquering the evil goddess who kept causing bad things to happen to us."

"Wait… 'we'? 'Us'?" Donald asked. "You're saying… _you_ too?"

"'I'm sorry for being born'." Nitori said simply, stopping and closing her eyes.

"Huh?" Sora asked.

"'I'm sorry for ever being born'. Those were the first words I ever heard the so-called 'Daughter of Curses' say."

* * *

"_Hey, hey! Hurry up, Nitori! We need to stick together!" The green-haired kappa boy yelled back at her._

"_Man, calm down, Satoshi!" Nitori sped up through the air. Geez, it wasn't her fault she was slower than the others, since they were making her carry all their stuff. What bad luck it had been for her to draw the short stick! That curse goddess must've known they were coming to find her and sent out some misfortune to get her. Nitori scowled. She'd make sure to make her pay for this! "I'm comin', I'm comin'!"_

"_Well you better come faster if we're gonna find her soon! I hate coming down here!" The teal-haired kappa girl yelled. "Beating her up and getting a spell card will be totally easy. Finding her's the hard part, and you slowing us down isn't helping!"_

"_Just shut up, I'm going as fast as I can!" Nitori yelled angrily. Gods, would these two just shut up already? They'd find her eventually. Everyone always came back from the forest with one of that girl's cards. It was a perfect retribution for all the bad luck they received from her all the time. At least, that was what the adults said. The elders always said that bad things were always the Daughter of Curses' fault, so it was good for the youth of their village and other youkai youth from the mountain to go 'Curse Hunting' to teach that evil goddess a lesson. _

_Nitori was suddenly interrupted from her thoughts by her face smacking into a tree._

"_Argh! I hate this place!" Nitori cried. "You can't see anything in this stupid forest!" She looked around, immediately confused as to why she wasn't hearing her friends' laughter at her misfortune. She felt a horrible feeling in her stomach as she realized her friends were nowhere to be seen. "…" She was an idiot. They must've not noticed and flown on ahead, or perhaps they had gotten lost in this stupid dark forest away from her. In any case, Nitori was aware that she was alone in an unfamiliar dark forest where a horrible goddess could get her at any moment. _

_She floated down from the trees and landed on the ground, unceremoniously dropping her friends' backpacks while keeping her own. There was no way she was going to carry their stuff while lost in this forest. What if that evil girl found and chased her? She shook her head. No, she had to find Satoshi and Satoko as soon as possible. There was strength in numbers, after all._

_She rummaged through her backpack and took out a small device. She placed it next to her friends' packs. With a flash, the packs vanished. She smiled and nudged the area where they had been with her foot, nodding satisfied when she felt the now-invisible packs. She'd be able to find them again with another device in her pack, as long as nothing moved them. Nodding to herself again, she rose into the air once again, and flew through the air, this time a little lower, so she wouldn't have to worry about the huge trees' branches in the dark. After a long time, however, she dropped to the ground, very exhausted and very upset. She hadn't seen any signs of anyone else in the forest; no disruptions in the foliage, no far-off sounds of her friends' yelling, and in fact, she hadn't heard any sounds at all, now that she thought about it. She was beginning to get frightened. This wasn't what was supposed to happen! Everyone else who had done a Fortune Test had always talked about how exciting and fun it had been- no one had ever talked about getting lost._

_She sighed. "Just my luck." She looked around. Any moment now, the evil goddess would appear, she was sure of it. What would she do to her? Would she cook and eat her? Would she just kill her and then throw her corpse into the center of the village as a warning? Or would she just sit under a tree a little ways away, her face in her hands, crying?_

…_Wait, what was that?_

_Nitori's eyes widened. Sure enough, there was someone underneath an old, decaying tree in a clearing not too far away. Immediately, Nitori shot behind a large tree, and slowly peered out from behind it at the crying girl. She was very pretty, with mint green hair and frilly red ribbons on top of her head and one of her arms, matching her red dress. She was hiccupping through her tears, and Nitori saw that her arm not wrapped with ribbon was bleeding, and there were bruises all over both arms. This couldn't possibly be the curse goddess. Such a pitiful-looking girl couldn't be a horrible person bent on bringing misfortune to the world… right? But… she fit the description of the goddess to a T. Though, everyone had described her as a cruel-looking girl befitting her title of the 'Daughter of Curses', and this girl looked anything but cruel. Why?_

_Nitori was brought out of her thoughts as she heard the girl speak through her sobs._

"_I'm sorry for ever being born." She sobbed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being alive." She cradled her bleeding arm. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." The girl repeated her apologies to the air again and again. "I'm sorry, so please keep giving me your misfortune. I'm sorry, so please let me atone for my sin by taking your bad luck. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."_

_Nitori gripped the tree trunk tighter. There had to be a mistake. There was no way this poor girl could be the one terrorizing everyone with bad luck. And who was she talking to, anyway? Didn't she know she was alone? Well, she wasn't actually alone, of course, but she couldn't possibly know-_

_Nitori's fears were confirmed when she noticed that the girl had suddenly stopped crying and was looking straight at her._

"…_Ah." The girl said. She shakily stood up, quickly wiping away her tears, and put on a rather unconvincing evil look. "It's dangerous to be here, you know. This is a forest of bad luck."_

"…" _Nitori hid behind the tree, cursing herself while doing so. What did she think was going to happen, that the girl would just forget she was there? Damn her own shyness!_

"_Um… You're here with those other two kappa, right?" The girl called from where she stood. She hadn't seemed to get any closer to Nitori's place. Nitori slowly looked from behind the tree, and nodded. The girl tried to smile wickedly, but it was obviously forced. "Well, I'm sorry to say they left already. And I'm afraid I don't have any more spell cards to let you take. If you'd like, you can use some danmaku on me as punishment."_

"…_Why would I do that?" Nitori asked. "…Did… did they do that you?" She pointed at the bleeding arm._

"_Oh, n-no! That was me. I was… was so, er, focused on making some curses to put on your village and I… ran into a sharp branch. Yes. I was going to hurt your friends, but they overpowered me and ruined my… wonderful curse. To, to put on your village. Yes."_

_Nitori raised her eyebrows._

"_You ought to get out of here now, little kappa. Once I regain my strength, I'll put such a terrible curse on you that you'll never be able to see colors again!"_

_Nitori giggled. "That's not a very good curse for someone responsible for everything wrong in the world."_

"_Er. I'm, um-" The girl suddenly winced in pain and clutched her bloody arm. "Uh! D-don't come any closer-" she panicked as Nitori, not quite sure herself why, strode over to her, pulling out a cloth and canister of water from her pack. She poured the water on the girl's arm and willed it to stay on, to the girl's surprise, cleaning away the blood. She willed the water to splash on the ground, and she wrapped tightly around the wound. She smiled, pleased with her work._

"_It's not as pretty as your ribbon, but it'll work for you." She looked up at the girl's face, and blinked as she saw the girl's bright green eyes tearing up. "Hey, what are you crying for? I won't hurt you."_

"_Y-you won't? B-but I'm-"_

"_I came into this forest looking for a horrible girl who curses people for fun and ruins perfectly good youkai's homes for no reason. I came to punish her for doing bad things." She grinned. "But you don't look like someone who would want to hurt anyone on purpose. And you definitely don't look like you like doing bad things." She held out her hand. "My name's Nitori! What's yours?"_

"_I…" The girl gulped. "I-I'm Hina."_

"_Hina, huh?" Nitori said. "Hinananananana! That's a really cute name!" she giggled._

"_Hee hee. Nininininitori's a cute name, too." Hina giggled as well. She sniffed. "Um… would you like me to show you the way out of the forest?"_

"_Ah! Would you?!" Nitori jumped for joy. She quickly regained her composure and coughed. "…Yes, please. If it's not too much trouble."_

"_It's none at all." Hina spun around._

"_Huh? What'd you do that for?"_

"_Oh. I just like to spin, is all."_

"_Huh." Nitori held her arms out from her sides, and spun around a few times. She staggered, swaying, as she held her head to stop being so dizzy. "Ack! Spinning is NOT for me."_

_Hina laughed. "Come! The way out is down here."_

_Along the way, Nitori realized that she was in a familiar place, to her surprise, considering how everything looked the same in the forest. "Hold on. I left some stuff here." She waved her foot around until she felt the camouflaged backpacks. She grinned and deactivated the device, and heard Hina gasp as the packs suddenly appeared. A devious thought crossed her mind, and she turned to Hina, opening up the packs._

"_Here. I'll give you some of this stuff, as an apology for my stupid deserting friends hurting you." She pulled out some small things until she found what she was looking for in both packs; bags filled to the brim with sweets, tied with pretty green and teal ribbons._

"_Oh, no, I couldn't-"_

"_Take them." Nitori pushed them into her hands. "From me. Since we're now friends."_

"_F-friends?!" Hina gasped. "We… are friends…?"_

"_Well, sure!" Nitori smiled. "Now that I know you're not what everyone thinks, we can be friends!" She frowned. "Though, it'll have to be a secret. Who knows what they'd do if they found out… They might hurt you even more."_

"…" _Hina began to cry again._

"_Oh, hey! You don't need to cry so much…"_

"_I… I've always wished…"_

"_Huh? What?"_

"_I've always wished for someone to be my friend!" Hina broke down, tears falling onto the bags in her hands._

"…" _Nitori smiled. She moved close to Hina and hugged her. "Hey, hey. First rule of being my friend: no more crying. Okay?" She pulled away from her and poked her on the nose. "Hey! What's the first rule of being Nitori's friend?"_

"_N-no crying." Hina hiccupped, and smiled. "Yes. No more crying." She took a deep breath. "Yes. Then, shall we continue on?"_

_After a while of flying through the trees, Nitori finally saw some light in the distance. She flew on ahead excitedly, and was relieved to see the familiar base of the mountain bathed in sunlight beyond the trees._

"_We're here! We made it!" She turned and looked back at Hina, who had caught up to her. "Thank you so much, Hina!"_

"_It's nothing." Hina smiled. "I'm sorry you couldn't win your game."_

"_Game." Nitori frowned. "This isn't a game. It's bullying." She put her hands on Hina's shoulders. "I promise I will never take part of it ever again. And I'll try to convince the others not to do it anymore, either!"_

"_Oh… you don't have to…" Hina's smile turned sad. "If doing this makes you youkai happy, then I'm glad to participate."_

"_No you're not!" Nitori said. "Second rule of being Nitori's friend: don't let anybody push you around and treat you badly for something you haven't done! Got it?" She waggled her finger. "Don't give anybody the satisfaction. When you hear youkai looking for you, just hide! If you have to, you can make something bad happen to them!" Seeing Hina's worried face, she quickly added, "Only if you HAVE to, of course. Just as a last resort."_

"…_Okay." Hina said. "I'll hide from now on. And…" She bit her lip._

"_What?" Nitori aked. _

"_Um… would you… would you come visit a lot?" _

_Nitori gave her a big smile._

"_I'll come visit you every day! I promise!"_

_Nitori had never seen someone have so much joy in their face as Hina did then before._

* * *

"I couldn't convince anybody to stop going after her, but at least she stopped letting them hurt her. After that, anyone who tried going in the forest came out soon after covered in bruises and leaves, moaning about their bad luck." Nitori laughed. "And soon after that, those newcomers settled down on the top of the mountain, and they said we shouldn't go after her anymore because she has an important job to do of keeping intruders away from the mountain, so now nobody does it at all!" She grinned back at Sora and the others. The four of them had listened to Nitori's story in silence as they made their way down the river.

"I can't believe it… Poor Hina…" Sora said sadly.

"Who are these 'newcomers' you mentioned?" Donald asked, glancing at the others, who shared his question. By 'newcomers', did she mean people from another world?

"Oh, just some more goddesses and their shrine maiden. At first we didn't know what to think of them, but they proved that they were really strong and pretty nice, so at least us kappa respect them. The tengu don't, though. Or at least, they don't trust them like we do." Nitori shrugged. "I'm really grateful to them. If it weren't for them, youkai would keep trying to hurt Hina. So I pray to them a bunch. Giving them my faith's the least I could do to repay them!"

"Another shrine maiden…" Reimu said quietly. She looked at the boys. "We definitely have to go see these guys!"

"Hey, hey! I'm only taking you to my own village!" Nitori said. "Going further up the mountain isn't a good idea, especially since-"

"If you're going to bring up the fact that we're human, I'll hit you." Sora said. Nitori changed tactics.

"…Well, whatever. We're here."

"Huh? Already?" Goofy asked. "Gawrsh, I was listenin' to your story so much I didn't even notice how long it's been!"

"Through here!" Nitori pointed. There was a fork in the river, with the left branch continuing on as the river had been, and the right branch going through what seemed to be a tunnel of trees. Nitori skipped down the right branch, looking back at the others as she did so. "Come on! Wait 'til you see where I live!"

The others followed quickly. Sora grinned at Reimu.

"Hey, Reimu."

"What?"

"Race you."

Reimu grinned, and shot forward through the air, though having to keep low because of the small space the tree tunnel was giving her.

"Hey, hey! You think you can just race your way into my home?" Nitori yelled, smirking. She jumped in the air and shot after Reimu.

Unfortunately, in doing this, she seemed to have forgotten to allow the water to act as a solid substance for the boys to walk on, and as she sped away, neck-and-neck with Reimu, the forces of gravity prevailed and the boys fell into the water.

"Great thinking, Sora." Donald said coolly, easily floating on top of the water and beginning to swim after the girls. (Of course, the duck would have the easiest time in this sort of predicament). Sora didn't answer him, simply swimming as well, ignoring Goofy's laughter behind them.

* * *

"I welcome you all…" Nitori said with a flourish, "…to Genbu Ravine!"

"Wow…" Sora said, shaking water out of his ears. It was a pretty impressive place. The ground was covered with huge cracks making hexagon shapes, making it look like a turtle shell. Surrounding the ravine were large, six-sided cliffs, and there was a large village (and were those _factories_?) bustling with life.

"All those people… those are kappa?" Reimu asked.

"Yup!" Nitori nodded. "Come on, time's a-wastin'. We gotta ask the elders if they've heard about that monster you're chasing, right?" She led them down a path to the village proper. Immediately as they walked down the streets, the kappa stopped what they were doing and stared at them, watching them walk past.

"Er… I don't feel welcome here." Donald muttered.

"Well, that's because you're not." Nitori whispered at him. "But this is important, so forget everyone staring."

"Hey, Nitori!" A boy's voice came from ahead. The five stopped as a green-haired boy and a teal-haired girl strode up to them, looking at the four intruders suspiciously. "Where've you been?"

"Hey Satoshi." Nitori said. "I'll tell you later, okay? I gotta get these guys to the elders."

"Them? But those are humans, aren't they?" The teal-haired girl said. "What are you doing, letting them in here?!"

"Look, Satoko, I really don't have time for questions. These guys, human or not, are on an important mission, and we need to ask the elders something. Or maybe you guys could tell us?" Nitori put her hands on her hips and looked around at the surrounding kappa. "Have any of you guys seen a big, scary monster? It's not a tengu, but it's a huge wolf covered in feathers and it can jump really high and it was making its way up the mountain!"

The kappa murmured to themselves, and many shook their heads or said no.

"Are you making things up?" Satoshi asked. "We haven't seen anything like that. And besides, wouldn't the tengu have done something about a monster like that? Don't worry about it, and take those humans home."

"If one more youkai talks down to us because we're humans, I'm going to scream." Reimu said under her breath. Sora giggled.

"Argh! If you guys haven't seen it, then we'll just ask the elders!" Nitori said, exasperated. "Come on, you four."

"Now hang on!" Satoko said. "Nitori, you can't just bring humans to the elders just like that-"

At that moment, everyone around them gasped as a loud howl filled the air.

"It's here!" Reimu yelled, and she and the boys brought out their weapons. The kappa looked around wildly, and some screamed and pointed as they saw the huge, feathered beast appear from the entrance from the river.

"Wh-what the hell is that!" Satoshi yelled.

"I-It's the monster!" Nitori cried. She looked at Sora and the others. "Y-you guys know how to kill it, right?! So do what you gotta do! And quick!"

The Heartless leapt from the entrance to the ravine, and bounded into the village, the kappa screaming and running away to hide. With it, the wolf had brought a large number of the crow Heartless, which individually chased the running kappa. Sora and Reimu went straight for the wolf, Sora firing fire, thunder and ice spells from his Keyblade, while Reimu used her favorite strategy of firing Homing Amulet and rushing in to swat at its head with her _gohei _occasionally. Donald and Goofy focused on helping the kappa get inside their homes and destroying the crow Heartless.

Nitori watched in amazement at how effective the four were being in fighting the weird monsters. She was very impressed; they really weren't kidding when they had told her they were strong. She watched as the two humans took on that scary wolf with no fear on their faces- in fact, the two of them were _smiling_, as if it were a competition between them! The other two of the group were no slouches either, easily protecting her fellow kappa from the smaller monsters. And what was she doing, just standing there watching? Wasn't there something she could do to help?

"Nitori! Get over here!" She whirled around at Satoko's voice. Her two friends were huddling together behind a pile of lumber. She ran over to them.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah! Well, now we know you weren't making things up." Satoshi said. "What are those monsters?"

"I don't know." Nitori shook her head. "But those humans came here looking for that big one, and well, at least they've found it now."

"Wh-what does it want?" Satoko asked. "Where did it come from?"

"I bet the curse goddess-" Satoshi started, but was abruptly cut off by a glare from Nitori.

"She has nothing to do with it." She said coldly. "Apparently, these things want people's hearts. That's why there here. And we don't know where it came from," she glared at Satoshi again, "but _she _has nothing to do with it. Got it?"

"Uh, s-sure." Satoshi gulped.

The three of them peered out from behind the pile of lumber. With all the crow Heartless destroyed, Donald and Goofy had joined Sora and Reimu in attacking the wolf. Sora and Donald simultaneously used Thunder, Goofy spun with his shield at the creature's legs, and Reimu was smacking its head with her _gohei_. Eventually, the wolf decided this village was not worth the effort, and it leaped into the air and climbed up one of the sides of the cliffs, disappearing to the forest above.

"We gotta go after it!" Sora yelled.

"How?! We can't just climb up these cliffs!" Donald said.

"I could just fly up…" Reimu said, "But what to do about you guys…"

At this Nitori grabbed her friends' arms and ran over to them.

"We'll fly you up."

"You will?" Goofy asked.

"We will?" Satoshi and Satoko said simultaneously.

"Yes, we will." Nitori nodded. "I'll grab you, Sora, and these two will grab you two." She motioned at the two kappa to Donald and Goofy.

"H-hey! Why do we have to?!" Satoshi asked. "We don't-"

"Because if you don't, that monster will go after every youkai it can find and try to steal their hearts, and it might even come back here again. Do you want that to happen?"

"…" Satoshi was silent, then grabbed Donald and floated up a little, testing his weight, to Donald's protests. "…Fine. But only 'cos this guy's light."

"H-Huh?! I get the big guy?" Satoko whined, looking at Goofy.

"Up and at 'em." Nitori lifted up Sora from under his arms, struggling a little with his weight. She looked at Reimu. "Come on, then! We need to find that thing as soon as possible!"

Reimu nodded, and flew up the cliff, with the three kappa and boys behind her. _We'll find this thing and beat it up real good. And then we'll go talk to those 'newcomer' goddesses and shrine maiden…!_

* * *

Hina Kagiyama was alone in the world. Yes, she was sure of it. She had never really had a friend. All those times she had spent with Nitori Kawashiro were just her own delusions. Oh yes, she was alone, and she had one purpose and one purpose alone: to bring misfortune and curses to everyone on Youkai Mountain. Wasn't that her title? The Daughter of Curses? All that time she had spent praying long ago for a friend had been for nothing. She didn't have any friends, after all.

She walked through the trees, up the dirt path up the mountain. She had never been allowed very far up the mountain. Those damned pretentious hateful youkai had always attacked her and tried to keep her away. But that didn't seem to be doing them any good now, was it? She continued, smiling serenely. She hoped she would come across someone soon. Any chance to bring someone despair would be a golden moment for her. She wanted to hurt those foolish youkai as badly as they had hurt her for so many years.

"Hey! You! Y-You're not supposed to be here!"

She looked up. In the trees, staring at her with wide, fearful eyes, was a boy with lovely light brown wings- a Pale Thrush youkai. She smirked. A simple little birdie. This would be child's play.

"Y-you're the misfortune goddess… y-you know you're not allowed up here! G-go away!" He yelled, his voice cracking on the last word.

"Ohohohoho~." She laughed. "So, shall we begin?"

After she had disposed of the poor bird by way of causing him to crash into a conveniently nearby hive of rather angry wasps, she continued up the mountain. Oh, yes. She would _show _them the power of the 'Daughter of Curses'.

* * *

**look at all this TRAGIC BACKSTORY wait it wasn't that tragic was it because FRIENDS**

**Hello, everyone. It's me, the Master of the Frosty Yard. Ohohoho.**

**so yeah sorry for the whole plot reference to Evillious Chronicles in regards to Nitori and Hina's relationship (I'm not sorry) (You might not even know what Evillious is) (That's okay)**

**I added some pictures to the tumblr tag since the last chapter. Check them out! They're mostly dumb doodles; some of Reimu's outfits for different worlds, some Marisas, Hina, and a clothes swap. heh. also there are some *semi* spoilers. Not big plot spoilers, but just little things. I don't think you'll be too upset if you see them. shrug. in case you forgot the url's on my profile so. go check that out. wink wink nudge nudge**

**oh, and which one of you guys recommended this on the tvtropes touhou fanfic recommendations page? because you SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME like one day I was just browsin' the fics, looking for a good one to read that didn't focus on shipping, and then suddenly BAM hey that's MY FIC and MY NAME right there. hey. thank you. you're too kind like wow I never thought this fic would get recommended to other people like. thank.**

**next time: sora and co. find the wolf, maybe beat it up. sora and co. find the mysterious 'newcomers' to the mountain, maybe beat THEM up. hina messes shit up everywhere, maybe beats some youkai up eh what do I know I'm not a pseudo heartless curse goddess.**

**questions, comments and suggestions always appreciated! thanks for reading! (kisses you all u3u)**


	14. Heartless from the Foot of the Mountain

[BGM: Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall]

"Stop it, damn it!" Reimu yelled over the roaring waterfall at the Heartless swooping at them. She had to protect the boys and kappa, since the six of them weren't exactly able to fight for themselves at the moment, what with three of them being carried and the other three doing the carrying. "I don't know why they decided to show up NOW of all times!"

"Yah!" Sora swiped at a nearby Heartless, sending it plummeting down the water with a bonk on the head with the Keyblade.

"C-careful! It's hard to hold you if you're doing that!" Nitori yelled.

"Huh? What?" Sora looked up at her, having not heard due to the waterfall.

"Nevermind." She rolled her eyes, swerving to avoid a crow.

"Nitoriiiiiiiii! This isn't what we signed up for!" Satoko yelled at her.

"We didn't even sign up for this!" Satoshi added.

"Quit whining! The faster we get up the falls to the top of the mountain, the faster this can be over with!" Nitori snapped.

"We sure are mighty grateful to you for helpin' us." Goofy said to Satoko.

"What did you say?" She yelled at him.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP." Reimu screamed. She was in a frenzy, shooting Homing Amulets at Heartless left and right, and had even begun kicking them into the waterfall below them, and the others watched gleefully as they were dragged down by the water. There was no stopping, however, for the Heartless made no signs of becoming smaller in number, and there was still a lot of waterfall to fly up.

"This waterfall is huge!" Donald yelled. "I've never seen one so big!"

"It's the Waterfall of Nine Heavens." Satoshi said. "It's three thousand feet tall and home to plenty of tengu patrols." He looked over at Nitori. "Speaking of which-"

"Satoshi, if they were gonna stop us, they would have done so a long time ago. Besides!" She gave a short burst of speed up to allow Reimu to shoot at a crow making its way towards her. "They probably have their own hands full dealing with these monsters!"

"If we're lucky, they've already taken care of the big scary one." Satoko yelled.

"That'd be nice." Sora said. "But are these tengu guys really as strong as you guys keep making them out to be?"

"They're super strong!" Nitori yelled.

"They're super fast!" Satoshi added.

"They're super cool!" Satoko chimed in.

"They're super unhappy that intruders would dare enter their territory." A girl with a large sword and shield said, flying straight out of the waterfall and slashing at a large flock of the crow Heartless, destroying them in three strikes. The girl turned and looked at them. She had messy white hair and bright red eyes which were currently narrowed at the seven of them in suspicion.

"I-it's a wolf tengu!" Satoko cried, nearly dropping Goofy to the poor dog's horror.

"We're so sorry! We didn't mean to intrude!" Satoshi yelled.

Reimu finally stopped her ferocious shooting at the Heartless to look at the newcomer. The newcomer looked her up and down.

"You're a shrine maiden, I see."

"You're a tengu, I see." Reimu scratched her head. "I mean, I guess. I've never seen a tengu before. I've been seeing a lot of new things lately."

"Are you affiliated with the god at the mountain's peak?"

"No." Reimu shook her head. "But we are actually on our way to see her. Er, after we take care of a little problem we've been trying to finish off that's been avoiding us."

"Ah. So you all are chasing the beast that's been harassing us." She said, nonchalantly slashing a crow behind her without even turning around.

"Yup!" Sora said cheerfully.

"Excellent." The tengu said. "Then you all plan on destroying it, I presume?"

"That's right." Donald said.

"Good." The tengu nodded. "Well, I regret to inform you that you will be unable to accomplish your task."

"Huh? Why? Did you guys already get it?" Nitori asked.

"The creature attacked our base of operations with more of these mockeries of crows," the tengu kicked at one, "but we easily overpowered it, of course. It escaped towards the shrine of the wind god. The goddess will take care of it easily, so you humans and kappa and…" she raised her eyebrows, trying to figure out Donald and Goofy, "…in any case, you will not have to worry."

"Oh." Reimu said, a little dejected. "I wanted to beat it up."

"Well, we better get to that shrine then, right?" Goofy asked.

"Uuuuugh! I have to carry you all the way up theeeeeere?" Satoko complained.

"That won't be necessary." The tengu said. "Since you do not plan on staying in tengu territory, it would be permissible to aid the associates of a fellow Dai-shogi player." She smiled at the kappa, who all giggled. The tengu whistled loudly- so loudly that it was clearly heard over the roaring waterfall. She nodded her head at the kappa, and Sora, Reimu, Donald and Goofy all gasped together as three more tengu had just suddenly appeared next to the first one.

"H-how?" Sora asked.

"We told you. Tengu are super fast!" Satoko giggled.

"Inubashiri." One of the new tengu said. "You called."

"Yes." Inubashiri said. "These seven require aid in getting to the wind shrine."

"Humans and kappa?" Another tengu asked. "Why are they here in the first place?"

"As I just told you, they are going to the wind shrine. They have business with the beast we chased up there."

"Ah." The other tengu all nodded in understanding. The three of them floated over to the kappa and their luggage, and held them.

"And I shall take you." Inubashiri said to Reimu, grabbing her.

"N-now, hold on a minute!" Reimu protested. "Why can't I just fly there myself?"

Inubashiri smiled.

* * *

"…I see." Reimu said seconds later, as they all landed on the ground, no waterfall- or Heartless- in sight. "How… how far are we from where we were?"

"We are now at the peak of Youkai Mountain." One of the tengu said. "Welcome to Moriya Shrine." He pointed, and they all turned to see stone steps leading underneath a _torii _up to a rather well kept looking shrine. Sora noted that though it looked similar to Reimu's family's shrine back home, it was considerably cleaner and fancier than hers.

"You said you chased that monster up here?" Satoshi asked. "Where is it?"

At that moment, a loud howl was heard from somewhere behind the shrine, and an enormous splash of water rose into the air.

"I would guess that the goddess here has cornered it at the Wind God's Lake, behind the shrine." Inubashiri pointed. She muttered something to her fellow tengu, and turned back to them. "We will leave you all now."

"Oh! Thanks for helping us up here!" Sora said.

Inubashiri smiled. "Do not enter tengu territory again, or we will attack you. And we won't hold back."

"U-uh, noted." Sora gulped. The tengu all nodded at the kappa, and within seconds they had flown away, so fast that the others hadn't even had time to blink.

"They were really scary…" Donald scratched the back of his head nervously.

They all looked at the shrine as another blast of water rose into the air, this time with an explosion of color, cries from the wolf, and… yells from a person?

"Now, foul demon, begone! _Divine Festival:__「__Expanded Onbashira__」__!" _A woman's voice boomed throughout the air. The seven of them ran (or flew) up the stone steps to the shrine's front, and made their way as fast as they could behind the shrine. The sight that met them made them collectively gasp: the wolf Heartless was stuck in place in the middle of an enormous lake, impaled by huge red lasers, while it was being bombarded with blue amulets. The wolf snarled and snapped at the amulets and tried to free itself from the lasers, but to no avail. "My, my. You just won't disappear, will you, creature?" The red-dressed woman floating high above it said, narrowing her red eyes. "Just how much of my attacks have you withstood? It must be an off day for me."

"U-Um!" Nitori shouted, her voice quivering, and her face red. "E-Excuse me, L-Lady Yasaka!"

Lady Yasaka turned sharply towards them, to Sora's surprise. He hadn't expected her to be able to hear them, what with her being so far from them.

"Who goes there?" Her voice boomed at them.

"Lady Yasaka! Um, please leave that creature to these humans and come to safety!" Satoshi yelled. "They may not look it, but they're strong and they came to this mountain to kill that monster!"

"Hm? Humans?" Still firing lasers and amulets at the Heartless behind her, she flew a little closer to them. "A boy, a duck, a dog, and a girl…" her eyes trailed down to the _gohei _in Reimu's hand, her eyes widening and, alarmingly, the bullets firing behind her decreasing in speed and number. "…A….shrine…maiden?"

"L-Lady Yasaka! The monster-!" Satoko yelled, pointing. With her distraction at Reimu, the goddess's spell card had timed out, and the Heartless was furiously making its way towards them, feathers flying away from its body as it splashed through the water, aiming directly for Lady Yasaka.

"Hmph." The goddess shook herself and looked away from Reimu at the beast hurtling towards her. "I did not permit you to leave that spot." She held up her hand and a huge gust of wind blew from nowhere, slowing down the wolf and influencing the waters of the lake into huge waves, causing the wolf to once again be unable to do anything but snap angrily at them. Lady Yasaka looked back at them. "I am perfectly capable of handling this on my own. You all may sit there and wait for me to finish this, and then we can discuss your business here."

"W-wait!" Reimu yelled as the goddess flew towards the wolf. "That monster _is _our business here!" She flew after her.

"Reimu!" Sora, Donald and Goofy, being unable to fly themselves, made their way down from the shrine to the shores of the lake, tripping over rocks and bushes as they did so.

"Why'd she have to keep it stuck in this lake?" Donald said angrily, kicking at the water. "We can't fight it from here!"

"Do you want us to carry you again?" Satoko asked. The three kappa landed next to them.

"No, it wouldn't be easy fighting like that." Sora shook his head.

"Um, I could just…" Nitori started, but was cut off by Goofy.

"Y'know, it might be better if we stay outta this, fellas." he said. "We'd just get in the way of those spell cards of theirs, wouldn't we?"

"…" Donald crossed his arms, and Sora watched the goddess and Reimu shooting bullets at the Heartless.

"…It's not fair." Sora said.

"Huh?" The others looked at him.

"Reimu's been doing a lot of the work lately." Sora said. "Fighting the Heartless when we were flying up the waterfall, fighting this one now, and even back at the Coliseum, when we were fighting Cloud, and then that crazy cat…"

"Cloud? Cat?" Nitori asked.

"I just wish we didn't have to stay on the sidelines and let her do all the work!" Sora said, ignoring Nitori. "Ugh!"

"Well, we can't fly, and they're in the middle of that lake." Donald said. "We really can't do anything but watch."

"Well, guys, you know I-" Nitori tried to say something, but was again cut off.

"I know! We can't-" Suddenly, Sora stopped. He looked at the lake, then for some reason, down at his shoes, and then at Nitori, then back at the lake. He smacked himself on the forehead.

"What is it?" Satoshi asked.

"Sora?" Goofy asked.

"I'm sorry, Nitori. I totally forgot." Sora sheepishly said to her. "Um, could you maybe…?"

"That's what I've been trying to do for you!" She laughed, pointed at the water, and snapped. "Now go, run as fast as you can and stop making Reimu do all the work!"

Sora nodded and ran straight onto the water, and sped towards the Heartless attempting to bite Reimu and Lady Yasaka out of the air.

"Ah, that's right! I forgot too!" Donald cried, running after Sora onto the lake.

"Wait fer me, fellas!" Goofy yelled after them. He looked back at the kappa. "Er, you can stay there where it's safe if ya like!"

"Gladly!" Satoshi and Satoko saluted together. They looked at Nitori expectantly.

"What?" She asked.

"Are you gonna go fight that thing too?" Satoshi asked.

"You've been really weird all day. Like, _really _weird. Being nice to humans, and actually caring about other people, and we're just wondering if you're gonna add being a hero of justice to that list." Satoko said.

"What? Shut up." Nitori said. "There's no way I'd fight that thing, ever. Those guys can handle it."

"Really? Not even if it tried to steal the heart of someone you cared about?"

The quiet voice behind them made them all jump, but it made Nitori's own heart sink in her chest from how wrong it sounded, coming from its owner. She slowly turned around to face the speaker, ignoring Satoshi's gasp and Satoko's shriek, and found herself forcing herself not to do both actions as she gazed at the person who had spoken those words.

"Oh, wait, that's right. You don't actually care about that 'someone'. Of course you wouldn't protect them from that monster. After all, you've refused to protect them from much less scary things before, all because of your selfishness."

"H…Hina? W-what are you doing here? Wh-what's wrong with you? Why do you look like that?" Nitori asked, her voice shaking.

Hina Kagiyama smiled, the dark aura emanating from her spinning lazily around her. "Oh. I have business with Yasaka. Since the beast isn't working out, I'm going to have to do the deed myself." She shrugged. "Though, so many others being here will complicate things a bit."

"'The deed'? What are you talking about?" Nitori asked. "Hina! What's going on! What did you mean, I don't care about you?"

"Um. Nitori. Why are you talking with the Daughter of Curses like you're having a fight with a friend?" Satoshi asked, his voice quavering, but still resolute.

"I- I'm not…" Nitori quickly looked at him. "She's-"

"Ah. Ha. Ha ha. Hahahahahahaha!" Hina laughed, a terrible, icy laugh, not like the warm laugh like the tinkling of bells which Nitori loved to hear when they would meet in secret. "You're right. We're not friends. I am the Daughter of Curses, and you all are just insignificant little ants I mean to crush. But that doesn't mean I don't like to chat with the misfortunate before I crush them."

"H-Hina?" Nitori looked at her, wide-eyed in disbelief. How could she be acting like this? What was happening?

"Oh, by the way. I would duck, you two." Hina addressed Satoshi and Satoko.

"H-huh?" The two of them said together, and collapsed together at that moment, as a wave from the lake without warning washed over them, hitting them both with large debris on their heads, knocking them out.

"What?! Why- Hina!" Nitori yelled at her.

"Oh my. How unfortunate for them." Hina giggled, but once again it was a _wrong _giggle, not a sweet one like she normally did when playing around with Nitori.

"Why are you doing this?!" Nitori yelled. "What's gotten into you?!"

"What's gotten into me?" Hina asked, her cruel laughing face suddenly going dark and angry, her voice suddenly softer but no less threatening. "Just the truth. I've been thinking, and I've realized that I am alone in this world. I have no friends. Friendship is just a delusion, a delusion I have freed myself from." She smiled. "My heart has found the comfort of darkness! Darkness has shown me the truth and let me realize my full potential as a goddess. I must share this wonderful truth with Yasaka, my fellow deity, and help her get rid of the pain she is feeling from the loss of her shrine maiden and Moriya. Darkness will let her know her true power, too! And then we will spread the wonders of darkness all over the mountain, and let everyone realize how worthless and horrible the light is. If we all work together to get rid of the world's light, everyone in this world will finally be able to live together in peace, don't you see? No more discrimination, no more scapegoats, no more hate, and no more of this sickness called friendship." She smiled widely, unsettlingly, madly. "Just the sweet darkness! It will be perfect for you, who has only ever thought about yourself. The beautiful darkness-"

"Oh my god Hina shut up." Nitori had stopped being scared of Hina now. She glared at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about, and you know what? I don't care. But you know what I _do_ care about? _You_." She closed her eyes, her fists clenching. "You're right about something. I do only ever think about myself. I'm scared that people will find out about our friendship. I'm scared about what they'll say about me or treat me badly because I'm your friend. I'm selfish and a coward and I admit it!" She opened her eyes, fiercely gazing at the goddess in front of her. "But you know what? Seeing those humans has gotten me thinkin' about a lot of stuff. They're human, but they're strong. They're human, but they haven't been overwhelmed or died or been hurt in this place that's dangerous even for other youkai. They're even fighting with Lady Yasaka and not being intimidated!"

Behind them, on the lake, Lady Yasaka had used another spell card, this one having to do with rice or something, shooting huge rings of exploding red and purple bullets at the wolf, with Reimu flying between each ring and shooting Homing Amulet at it. Though the large waves caused by Lady Yasaka and Reimu's combined assault were bothering the wolf, it was not the case with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They used the waves to their advantages, running on top of the waves and jumping off to get hits on the wolf's head, saved from the Heartless's snapping jaws by the water itself. The wolf was staggering around, trying to use its paralyzing howl, but to no avail. Lady Yasaka's wind and waves drowned out all of its cries. Blizzard was proving to be a particularly effective spell for Sora and Donald to use, freezing the water where the wolf was standing and rendering it incapable of movement, leaving it open to the painful danmaku of Reimu's and Lady Yasaka's.

"It's been makin' me think." Nitori said. "They're a lot different than what I expected them to be. So I've been wondering, maybe it'll be different for us, too." She clasped her hands together. "Instead of being scared for myself, I just go right out and tell everyone how wonderful and kind and friendly you are and how you should be allowed to come visit all the time, and convince people that you're not the 'Daughter of Curses', but something much more!" She smiled. "The 'Daughter of Fortune', maybe! Or, er, something else. I'm not that good with naming things."

"…" Hina stared at her with the glowing yellow eyes that did not belong on her.

"Hina… stop it with all that wacky 'darkness' talk! Let's wait together for those guys to beat up that monster, and for Satoshi and Satoko to wake up, and then you can apologize to them and maybe Lady Yasaka can fix whatever's happened to you, and we can-"

"Enough." The aura surrounding Hina had darkened from a dark purple to a pitch black. "You're a liar." Nitori felt a bead of sweat go down her face as she listened to her friend speak in a terrifying monotone. "You're not my friend. You were never my friend. You don't care about me. No one cares about me. I'm all alone. The darkness is my only friend. No one no one nO ONe NO OnE NO ONE NO ONE no ONE nO One no one no one NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE CARES-" She flung her head back and gave a piercing scream, clutching the sides of her head tightly.

"_HINA!_" Nitori ran at her, trying to touch her, but was thrown back by the terrible aura, landing with a splash in the turbulent water. She noticed that it begun to rain, which was odd. Wasn't it bright and sunny just a little bit ago? She turned to the group fighting on the lake. Lady Yasaka seemed to have decided to stop wasting spell cards on the beast, and was just using non-spell danmaku now, though the other four were using their same strategies as before. She tore her eyes away from the battle to focus on the trouble on the lake shore. Hina had stopped screaming, and was breathing heavily, staring at Nitori with those horrible yellow eyes.

"_I'll get rid of you now, and then spread the good message of darkness to the old hag._" She hissed at her. "_Darkness will be the new, unquestioned faith of this mountain!_"

"Like I'll let that happen!" Nitori yelled, jumping out of the water and floating up into the air, slowly reaching down into one of the pockets of her dress, and pulling out a spell card of her own. "Hina, I forgive you for all of this you're doing, so please forgive me for smacking some sense into you!"

"Fine, then!" Hina shrieked, lifting off into the air as well, her own spell card materializing out of the dark aura. "_Now die, for the sins you have accumulated!_"

[BGM: The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field]

"_Bad Luck Sign: __「__Biorhythm of the Misfortune God__」__!"_

"_Water Sign: __「Kappa's Great Illusionary Waterfall__」__!"_

* * *

One hit. Two hits. Three hits. The wolf had given up, and simply stood there as Sora wailed on it with the Keyblade. Four hits. Five hits. Six hits. It was just about finished, he could tell. Seeing the creature look so pitiful and accepting of its fate made him feel a little bad for it, but he got over it. It was a monster of darkness, after all. It had been trying to steal Lady Yasaka's heart, and had tried to take Hina's and those innocent kappas' hearts as well. Seven hits. Eight hits. Nine hits.

"All together now!" the goddess yelled, and she fired huge purple bullets at the creature. Reimu elegantly twirled between them and smacked the Heartless's head as hard as she could with her _gohei_. Donald let loose an enormous bolt of lightning, fitting for the heavy rain pouring down on them, striking the wolf, and making Sora wonder why the three of them hadn't been hurt by it, what with them standing on a huge body of water and all. Goofy spun like a little tornado, striking the wolf many times. Finally, Sora saw his chance as a large wave went past him. He ran on top of it, and leapt off, bringing the Keyblade down on the Heartless's head. With a final howl that was lost in the wind and rain, the Heartless wolf covered in feathers and leaves fell to the ground… or, rather, water, disappearing into light as it sank in the water, a large, bright heart spinning up into the air serenely despite the harsh weather before also disappearing into light.

"We did it!" Donald and Goofy jumped up and down together happily.

"Way to go, everyone!" Sora yelled over the rain and wind.

"Oh. Allow me to…" Lady Yasaka cleared her throat, and yelled to the sky, "Calm down!" Instantly, the rain let up, though it did not stop. She looked down at them below her. "A good, blessed rain is fine enough as celebration for this accomplishment."

They all watched as the water of the lake calmed down as well, the waves getting smaller and smaller. Donald and Goofy stopped jumping and looked down as they saw that they had been jumping on a rock, not the water. Sora glanced down as well and noticed that he two had ended up on a rock. He shrugged and looked up at Reimu and Lady Yasaka, floating down to them.

"Well, now that that is over and done with…" Lady Yasaka looked at all of them, noticeably looking longer at Reimu than the boys. "Who are y…ou… all…." She was staring over their heads at the far away shore, and her triumphant face from beating the Heartless had shifted into a grimace. "What now." She said, unamused.

They all turned to look at what she was talking about, and were all surprised to see two flying figures, one blue and one black, quickly flying around in the air, the blue one letting out an insane number of bright blue bullets that seemed to be coming from the lake itself, and the black figure unleashing an equally lunatic number of red bullets.

"Is that Nitori?!" Reimu cried. "Who's that she's fighting?"

"…It can't be…" Lady Yasaka's eyes widened. "What in heaven has happened to her?!"

"What is it? Who is it?" Sora asked.

"It's… a lesser goddess… A goddess of misfortune. I gave her a job of keeping out humans from the Great Youkai Forest for their protection. What is she doing here, and what is the evil I sense even all the way out here from her?"

"Miss Hina? That's Miss Hina there?" Goofy cried, distressed. "That can't be! We left her by the river at the bottom of the mountain, didn't we?"

"Well, whatever the reason, it's making her and Nitori fight." Sora said. "Best friends like them shouldn't fight! Come on, guys!" He ran off the rock… and plunged into the water. He bobbed up and climbed back onto the rock, shivering and drenched. "I-I f-forgot she'd p-probably not b-be f-f-focused on keeping the water s-solid f-f-for us right now…"

Reimu shook her head and flew down and lifted him up from under his arms, obviously struggling with his weight.

"No, Reimu! I'm too heavy!"

"We need to get over there right now. I can handle it…" Her physical prowess (well, lack thereof) betrayed her however, and she nearly made both of them drop into the cold water below.

"…Ahem." Lady Yasaka scooped up Sora in her arms, and grabbed Donald and Goofy as well. It was a rather amusing sight, seeing the serious woman carrying the three silly boys, but Reimu knew that that particular moment wasn't one for laughing. She nodded to the goddess and flew quickly over to where the danmaku fight was happening, stopping a ways away as not to get in the line of fire. Lady Yasaka deposited the boys further away on the ground, and flew over to where Reimu was floating. She cleared her throat once again, and spoke in her booming, godly voice, "Cease this duel on my property at once!"

The two dueling girls did not hear her, or if they did, they ignored her. They were both in a trance, shooting thousands of bullets at each other at the same time, not seeming to care that they were bringing their fight dangerously close to the shrine itself. Lady Yasaka noticed this, and decided that if she couldn't tell these fools to stop their fight, she would at least get them away from her house. With a sweeping motion of her arms, a powerful gust of wind blew the girls and their bullets away, to over the lake itself, effectively swapping the places of the two parties. As the two girls had been spectators to Sora and everyone's fighting, now Sora and the others were the spectators to their fight.

"_TIRED, YET?" _Hina yelled at Nitori, unleashing a huge wave of diamond-shaped red bullets towards her.

"_THIS IS JUST A WARM-UP!" _Nitori retorted, motioning with her arms as if she were lifting something heavy, and many streams of blue bullets rose from the water, striking through the red ones and surrounding Hina.

"_TCH! SCAR: __「__BROKEN CHARM OF PROTECTION__」" _A huge wave of more red bullets surrounded Hina in a huge, intricate circle, before breaking apart with all the bullets going this way and that surrounding Nitori. Nitori dove between the bullets, closely grazing many and getting hit on her arms once or twice, but aside from that was relatively unharmed by the attack. She brought up bullets from the water beneath them to shoot at Hina, though Hina's constant spinning around made it difficult to hit her and dodge the bullets at the same time. Then, something odd happened: the bullets just stopped coming from the water. Nitori looked down in confusion and shock, and then yelped with pain as she was hit by multiple bullets at once. Her cries made Reimu wince.

"_HOW UNFORTUNATE~" _Hina laughed cruelly.

"To hurt her that much… that's… that's a lunatic level spell, isn't it?" Reimu asked.

"I believe it is." Lady Yasaka nodded.

"We should help her!" Reimu made to fly into the fray, but the goddess grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her back next to her.

"No, shrine maiden. This is their battle. It would be unwise to interfere."

"…" Reimu looked down at the boys, who had reached the shore right below them. Sora was looking up at her, confused. She shook her head and shrugged at him.

"_G-guh… Y'THINK THAT'LL BE ENOUGH TO PUT ME OUT?" _Nitori's yells echoed throughout the lake. "_GET A LOAD OF THIS! DROWN: __「__TRAUMA IN THE GLIMMERING DEPTHS__」__!" _The water beneath them began to tremble violently, and a huge amount of glowing blue bullets began to form and rise into the air, quickly closing in around Hina. She glared at the watery bullets and flew between them gracefully, spinning around the beautiful water. She was heading straight for Nitori, with a malicious glint in her eyes- but was suddenly jerked back as her foot was caught in the water stream, and she was flung around, straight into huge blue bullets Nitori shot at her.

"_HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" _Hina screeched. The spectators on the shore all cringed at the sound.

"A-are you sure we can't help them?" Sora yelled up at Lady Yasaka and Reimu. Reimu looked at the goddess pleadingly.

"This is their battle." Lady Yasaka repeated.

"…" Reimu looked at the two girls, worried.

"I wonder what they're fighting about." Donald said.

"Why did Hina come up here, anyway?" Sora asked. "I thought she was gonna wait for us back at the foot of the mountain."

"Maybe she didn't want to wait alone in the rain." Goofy said, holding up his hand to catch some raindrops.

"I don't think that's it." Sora smiled, but stopped as they heard Hina yelling again.

"_FATE: __「__OLD LADY OHGANE'S FIRE__」_" Hina was suddenly surrounded by swirling, flaming bullets, which she directed to move towards Nitori. The kappa laughed.

"Huuuuuuuh? Really? You're using _fire_? I think you've spun around too much, your head's dizzy!" Nitori easily flew through the flames, shooting the same big blue bullets from before. The flaming bullets got faster and faster everywhere, but they were erratic and losing their pattern. Nitori managed to get a good look at Hina's face, and nearly stopped midflight at the sight. Hina, the prim and proper elegant doll that she knew so well, looked like a monster. The cold yellow eyes stared at her manically, and she was baring her teeth at her. "Hina…" Nitori wanted to reach out to her, to hug her, but-

"Nitori!"

She heard the yells coming from the shore, from the humans. She looked up to see she was about to fly right into a cluster of flaming bullets; the card had entirely lost its form now, and Hina was just madly shooting out flames every way. She shot more blue at Hina, and just in time all of Hina's bullets disappeared- the card had timed out. Nitori pulled out another card from her pocket, but stopped just before announcing it and stared in confusion as Hina suddenly fled…

…No, she wasn't fleeing. Hina was flying faster than Nitori had ever seen her do so before, straight at Lady Yasaka.

"You dare-?" The goddess yelled, swiping the air with her arm and firing differently colored amulets.

"Hey now!" Reimu yelled, flying back and summoning Homing Amulet. "What are you doing, Hina?!"

Hina didn't answer. Or rather, she did, but it was an inhuman growl. She turned her glowing yellow eyes on Reimu and flew at her, hand outstretched towards her heart. It was at that moment that Reimu noticed another change that had happened to Hina- the swirl that was on Hina's dress had become…

"My god." Reimu didn't hold back, and smashed her _gohei _into the side of Hina's head, knocking her back and sending her falling to the ground. "Guys! _She's a Heartless_!"

"WHAT?" The boys yelled, but looking at Hina slowly standing up, they understood. Now that they finally got a better look at her, they noticed that her dress was a lot less vibrant than it had been, and instead of the swirl on her dress, there was a huge patch of the Heartless emblem. She staggered one step, and dashed at Sora, reaching for his heart.

"H-Hina! I don't wanna hurt you!" Sora blocked her with the Keyblade, trying hard to push her back. Suddenly he lost all of his strength and gasped, pushing Hina back onto the ground and falling over himself, clutching his stomach and covering his mouth with his hand. He felt like he was about to be sick, as he had become uncomfortably used to lately. He felt Goofy gently grab him and bring him up just in time for him to see Donald freeze Hina, rendering her unable to move.

"Are you okay?!" Reimu flew down and landed in front of him, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. "What was that? Was it a curse from her or something?"

Nitori and Lady Yasaka both landed next to them, looking concerned at Hina.

"…" Nitori looked around at the ground and noticed the unconscious bodies of the kappa siblings. She dragged them over to the rest of the group, then stared blankly at the frozen Hina, ignoring the others.

"How… how could she be a Heartless…?" Sora asked. "…You can stop shaking me, by the way."

"Ah. Sorry, it's kind of therapeutic." Reimu took a step back.

"She must've been attacked or something after we left." Donald said.

"…" Nitori said nothing.

"If I may ask…" Lady Yasaka crossed her arms. "You four are from outside this world, aren't you?"

"Huh?" The four of them said together.

"You wield the Keyblade, child." Lady Yasaka pointed at the key in Sora's hand. "I was preoccupied with that beast, but I noticed it. You are on a mission to purify the worlds, yes?"

"Um, we're actually looking for our friends…" Sora said.

"And our king." Donald added.

"But we're purifying along the way." Reimu smiled.

"…I see. I don't believe I caught your names."

They introduced themselves, and Nitori, who still did not speak or look away from Hina. Lady Yasaka nodded, satisfied.

"Well. I am Kanako Yasaka, goddess of this mountain, and I thank you all for aiding me in ridding that beast." She looked over at Hina. "Now we must decide what must be done with this one."

"Hey!" Nitori whirled around, glaring at her. "Hina is _not_ a beast!"

"I did not say she was." Kanako raised her eyebrow. "But something foreign has corrupted her, and we must rid her of it."

"But how?" Sora asked.

Kanako smiled at Reimu.

"Isn't it a shrine maiden's job to purify evil?"

* * *

**so how about that hopeless masquerade and double dealing character **

**Hey everyone, it's me, Frost. This chapter took forever and for that I am sorry.  
**

**I keep making Sora get hurt. Why does this keep happening? Sora, stop getting sick. Sora stop it.**

**but where are sanae and suwako? we just don't know**

**to be honest I don't know if I'm going to put Deep Jungle in this because a) I really really hate that world and b) I kind of want to get on with the plot i.e. going back to Traverse Town to meet up with you-know-who**

**eh**

**comments, questions, and suggestions always appreciated! sorry I don't have much to say today lol**

**thanks for reading**


	15. The Gods Give Us Blessed Gummis

"So… is this right?" Reimu asked tentatively. They were in the Moriya Shrine itself, the still frozen Hina now wrapped with _shimenawa_ ropes and placed in the center of the room, with everyone standing around her. Satoshi and Satoko had woken up and stayed as far away from her as possible, sitting against the wall on the other side of the room. Reimu, _gohei _in hand, had listened and done as Kanako had told her to, spreading salt around the ice and setting up the ropes. The boys stood back with Kanako and Nitori.

"Yes. Your circle's sloppy and those ropes aren't very tight, but we're not going for perfection here." Kanako nodded in approval. _If it's okay, then don't bring up the negatives._ Sora thought.

"Okay. So, what now?" Reimu asked. "I've never done something like this before."

"In a moment, I will ask Donald here to thaw the ice and free her. At that time, you boys," Kanako nodded at Sora and Goofy, "Will need to grab the ends of the rope and pull as tightly as you can, so she can't move. Then, you must wave your _gohei _over her head and just repeat the words that I told you."

"And that'll fix Hina?" Sora asked.

"It better." Nitori said. Kanako gave her a look, but did not say anything.

"Okay then." Reimu took a deep breath and exhaled, a fiery look coming into her eyes. "Let's get this over with already!"

"Ready, boys." Kanako ordered. The boys moved to their places.

"W-we'll be okay over here, right?" Satoko called from the other end of the room.

"You'll be fine. She won't hurt you." Kanako said.

"All right! Ready!" Sora said, Donald and Goofy nodding.

"Then, unfreeze her." Kanako said. Donald gulped and cast Fire at the frozen Hina, melting the ice (yet somehow not the ropes). At once, a noise like a hiss and a growl came from Hina as the ice melted around her and Sora and Goofy pulled, tightening the ropes around her, rendering her unable to move. She glared down at the sloppy salt circle surrounding her, yet made no effort to move any nearer to it than where she already was, which confused Sora. Really, what was with the salt? What could it do?

"Well, here goes." Reimu held her _gohei _above Hina's head and started swinging, and began to speak words that Sora didn't understand. He looked over at Donald and Goofy who gave him the same bewildered looks that he had.

"_Stop it._" Hina said, glaring at Reimu. "_You're annoying._"

Reimu paused for a second, looking like she was going to retort, but at Hina's malicious grin she quickly resumed her chanting. Her trick foiled, Hina went back to glaring at all of them, at Sora and Goofy, to Donald, to Kanako, and finally at Nitori. The two of them held each other's gazes, Hina looking increasingly angrier while Nitori held her ground, trying to keep her obviously upset face blank.

"_I was right. You were never my friend._" Hina spat at her.

"No. That's wrong." Nitori said. "You're my best friend, Hina. I've always been selfish and scared for myself about it, but I never meant to hurt you."

"Do not respond to her." Kanako said.

"_Liaaaaaar_."

"I'm not lying."

"_Do not respond._" Kanako repeated. "If you break Reimu's concentration, the ritual will fail and she'll escape."

"_And yet you're talking, too._" Hina snickered.

"…" Kanako pointedly looked at Reimu, who had closed her eyes, immersing herself in the chant. Sora wondered just how much Kanako had told her to repeat, and how on earth she could remember it all.

"_But anyway,_" Hina continued, "_You're all just wasting your time. I'm one with the darkness now, and no stupid ritual can change that. I can stand here for as long as it takes for the miko to get tired and over exhaust herself, and then where will you be? Where's the real shrine maiden of this mountain, huh? Where'd she go?_" Hina smiled wickedly at Kanako.

"…" This clearly struck a nerve with her, and she clenched her fists, but continued watching Reimu without saying anything to Hina.

"_She's gone. She's gone into the darkness too, I bet. Her and the other goddess up here! And I bet they won't come back. I bet they left because you're so weak. You're just a figurehead, anyway. You know the real goddess of this shrine is her. You're just a fake!"_

"Hina, stop." Nitori said, looking worriedly at Kanako who, though still ignoring Hina and watching Reimu, had begun to shake. "Please."

"_Whaaaaat? I'm just telling her the truth. The darkness knows the truth of everything. Maybe if you would have been good and let me show her darkness, she could be at peace._" She shook her head. "_If you'd all give in to the darkness, you'd all be at peace. Find your purposes. Find what you've lost._" At this, she grinned at the boys, but mostly at Sora.

"…" Sora looked away. There was no way he'd let her get to him. It was just the Heartless corrupting her making her say those things. It was the darkness that had taken him and Reimu away from Riku, Marisa and Kairi, after all.

"_Wah. You're all so boring._" Hina sighed. "_Hey, shrine maiden. Hurry up already, would you? I'm getting tired. Drop to the ground dead already so I can finish my business here._"

Reimu was still chanting, but everyone could see that she was getting fed up with all of Hina's talking.

"Hey, Miss Kanako…" Donald had backed up to stand next to her and whispered to her. "Er… how long do things like this last, exactly?"

"As long as it takes." Kanako said.

"_Aaaaaaah. We'll be here forever. This is precious time you're wasting, you know? Shouldn't you all be out looking for those precious people you've lost?" _Hina looked at them with mock surprise. "_Or maybe they're not really that precious to you at all? Wow, we're in the same boat, aren't we? The person I thought considered me worth something was lying the whole time, and here I'm learning you all have people you're lying to as well. Goodness, I hope they've found comfort in the darkness as well."_

"Shut…up… Hina." Nitori said quietly.

"_Ahahaha. Did I mention this isn't doing anything, by the way? You can't just get rid of the darkness by tying it up and pouring some salt around it. Do you all solve your problems in such stupid ways like this? Maybe you try building useless inventions, or maybe you try enlisting the help of stubborn tengu who don't respect you, or maybe you go on wild goose chases to other worlds looking for a sliver of hope…" _Hina giggled. "_But there is no hope, don't you see? No hope in the light, at least. It's useless, it's all useless~"_

"It's not useless." Reimu said, lowering her _gohei_. "Nothing's useless if you put your heart into it.

"That's right!" Sora said. "Maybe we don't fix the problem on the first try…"

"But there's no way we'll ever give up!" Donald nodded.

"Givin' up is how we'll fail, but if we just keep on tryin' and tryin', we're sure to find what we're lookin' for. Without darkness!" Goofy said.

"…Er, hang on." Sora said, suddenly realizing a problem happening at that moment. "Uh, Reimu? Why did you stop chanting…?"

"Oh. I forgot the rest. Actually, I forgot a while ago. I've just been saying nonsense words for a while now, and I got bored doing that."

Everyone stared at her in silence, dumbstruck.

"…_Well, since that's the case._" Hina took that moment of Sora and Goofy's distraction to free herself of the ropes and swiped at the salt circle with her foot, sweeping it away. She smiled at everyone, who watched in shock as the dark aura began manifesting itself around her once more. "_Now then, hag. I claim your heart in the name of darkness!_" She sprung at Kanako, arm outstretched to her heart. She was feet away, then inches, then-

Then Nitori tackled her.

"Hell no!" She cried out, pinning Hina underneath her.

"Nitori!" Satoshi yelled, pulling his sister towards them. "No!"

"Stay back!" Nitori yelled at everyone, not taking her eyes off of Hina's. "Hina, as your friend, I will not allow you to turn Lady Yasaka into whatever you are!"

"_You're really set on convincing me that we're friends, aren't you?_" Hina hissed at her, struggling to free herself of Nitori. But then, at that moment, she stopped struggling. A grin appeared on her face. "_Well, if we're friends, then you won't mind me taking __**your **__heart?_"

"Nitori!" Sora yelled, moving towards her, but a wave of darkness erupted from Hina, knocking them all back, forming a barrier between them and the two girls on the ground.

"Hina." Nitori said, shaking. "If that's what will finally make you realize we're friends… You can have it."

"No!" the kappa twins yelled together.

"Nitori!" Sora yelled.

"C-can't you do something?" Reimu asked Kanako, who simply shook her head, staring at the two girls.

". . ._Huh?_" Hina's eyes widened. "_Wait, seriously? You'll let me turn you to darkness?_"

"S-sure." Nitori said, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Since there hasn't been any other way to prove to you how much I care about you. As long as you promise you won't hurt anyone else or try to take Lady Yasaka's heart, I'll let you take mine."

"_Haaah? Bit of an ego, don't you think? Saying your heart is an equal trade to that of a goddess's?!" _Hina managed to push Nitori off of her and stood up, looking down at the kappa who did not bother getting off of her knees.

"Please, Hina. No more hurting. It's not you." Nitori looked up at her, tears falling down her cheeks. "I'm the selfish, greedy, cowardly kappa. I'm perfect for the darkness, don't you think so?"

"_. . .No. No, I won't take your heart. You don't deserve something so awfu-_" Hina stopped herself, blinking confusedly, as if not understanding what she was saying. "_Wonderful. I meant wonderful. The darkness is something you should have no part of!_"

"H-hey. What she said just then…" Sora said to Reimu.

"…It's Hina. She's fighting on the inside. She doesn't want to hurt Nitori!" Reimu said, looking at Donald and Goofy for their input.

"It's gotta be. Look!" Donald pointed.

"Hina." Nitori stood up. "I'm tired. It's been a long day, hasn't it? You must be tired, too. I mean, you climbed up the mountain all by yourself! I thought we would do it together."

"_Be quiet._" Hina said, trembling.

"Hina. Haven't you figured it out yet? I'm not gonna leave you alone. Because you're my best friend." Nitori took a step towards her. "But since you're all about this darkness now, we're from even farther worlds apart than before. So I'm telling you as a friend…"

"_Stay back!"_ Hina yelled.

"No way." Nitori got even closer. "If you're gonna be in darkness, let me be in the darkness too."

"Nitori!" Satoko yelled, gripping onto her brother's arm tightly. Sora, Reimu, Donald, Goofy, and Kanako watched in silence as Nitori took one more step… and hugged Hina, ignoring the darkness surrounding her, and Hina's desperate struggles to get her off.

"I'm not letting go, by the way." Nitori said. "So you have two options. Turn my heart to darkness too, or go back to the old Hina. The Hina who cares, who loves to spin around, who gets way to apologetic when something unlucky happens to me even when I laugh it off. The understanding Hina. The kind Hina. The Hina who sacrifices herself to protect others in the darkness when she really belongs in the light."

"_LET GO! LET GO OF ME!" _Hina yelled, thrashing around.

"Hey, what did I just say?" Nitori hugged her tighter. She glanced down at the dark aura encompassing both her and Hina. "Well, I guess we'll see your choice in a second." She looked up at Sora, Reimu, and the others and smiled. Then, the two of them were completely obstructed from view by black and dark purples, swirling around them. Everyone watched with bated breath, no one moving a muscle. And then, something very fortunate happened.

From the darkness, shone a bright, white light. It sparkled, and grew bigger and bigger until-

The barrier of darkness keeping them from the two girls evaporated into the air. The kappa twins made to rush towards the swirling darkness, but stopped at Kanako's cry of "_Stay back!_"

They all stood still, and tensed as they heard muffled sobs coming from the darkness. Sora and Reimu looked at each other. Could it be…?

"…_so…rry…_"

"Is that?" Goofy took a hesitant step forward.

"Stay back, Goo-" Donald started, but gasped along with everyone else as the darkness suddenly blasted away, disappearing, leaving the two girls standing there- Nitori, hugging and patting the back of Hina, whose colors had returned to their normal vibrancy, hiccupping and sobbing onto Nitori's shoulder. Reimu noticed that the Heartless symbol on her dress had returned to the swirl that belonged there.

"I'm s-sorry!" Hina cried. "I'm so so _s-sorry_!"

"It's okay." Nitori patted her back. "Stop crying, geez." She pulled away from Hina and smiled. "Come on. You're breaking the first rule of being Nitori's friend, remember?"

"It's not okaaaay!" Hina wailed. Her eyes had thankfully reverted to their normal green. "I-I hurt you all! A-and I tried to hurt Lady Kanako, and I said such nasty things to everyone, and I said you weren't my f-friend, and- OW!" She cried as Nitori bonked her on the head.

"What did I just tell you?! It's okay! It's all okay! It wasn't you." Nitori looked around at everyone else. "You all saw it. She was being possessed, or corrupted, or whatever. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't your fault. So no one's blaming you. _Right_?" She glared at everyone.

"Of course not!" Sora said indignantly.

"It was the Heartless." Reimu nodded.

"They're causing trouble everywhere!" Donald said angrily.

"Miss Hina, do ya need to sit down?" Goofy asked.

"N-no, I'm fine." Hina sniffed, wiping away the tears on her cheeks. "B-but, I hurt you all-"

"Listen to me, Hina Kagiyama." Kanako said authoritatively. "I, as the goddess of this mountain, am absolving you of all previous crimes. Even though they were not your fault." She said with a glance at Nitori glaring at her. "You did not hurt us. It was the darkness that hurt us. Do you understand?"

"Y-Yes ma'am." Hina said.

"But that's amazing." Reimu said. "Really amazing. Even though you were consumed by darkness, in the end you couldn't bear to hurt Nitori."

"You two are definitely the closest friends I've ever seen!" Sora grinned at them. He looked over at Reimu, and said to her quietly as the kappa twins pounced on Nitori with worries and reprimands, "…do you think Riku or Marisa or Kairi would do the same for us if we were in a situation like this? 'Cause I do."

"Definitely. This just shows we have to find them as soon as possible." Reimu nodded.

"H-Hey, Sora?!" Donald cried.

"Huh? What?" Sora looked at him, surprised.

"Look!" Goofy pointed. Without realizing it, the Keyblade had materialized in Sora's hand and was pointing itself at the salt on the floor which Hina had kicked away earlier… into the shape of a keyhole.

"Again…" Sora muttered. He held the Keyblade properly this time as with a flash of light and tiny stars, a beam shot from the Keyblade into the salt keyhole, which blew away as a loud locking sound came from nowhere.

"Oh no! I didn't get to put my seals around the keyhole." Reimu pouted.

"Well, how were you gonna do it? It was a bunch of salt." Donald laughed.

"Um. What just happened?" Satoko asked, but her question was ignored.

"I'll just put them around where it was, then. Hey, Kanako, you don't mind, do you?" Reimu said, summoning the same kind of seals she had put around the Doorknob at Wonderland. Without waiting to hear if Kanako minded or not, she placed them around where the salt keyhole had been, and repeated what she had done at Wonderland. And, like back then, when she had finished the seals vanished with red light.

"No, seriously. What is happening?" Satoshi asked.

"Who cares." Nitori shrugged, smiling at Hina, who giggled.

"Well, since everything seems to have been taken care of, I believe it's time for you all to go home." Kanako said, walking to the door of the room. "Am I right in thinking that you will not need to worry about any more monsters… Heartless?"

"I don't know if they're completely gone now, but there should at least be a lot less than when we came up here." Reimu said.

"Then, we're going home. Thanks for letting us in your home, Lady Yasaka." Nitori waved.

"Huh? We're just… just leaving?" Satoko asked.

"Just like that?" Added Satoshi.

"Just like that." Nitori nodded. "Hina, you can stay at my place tonight. There's no way I'm making you go back to the forest by yourself."

"What?! You're gonna take her into the village? After everything she's-" Satoko was silenced by a glare from both Nitori and Kanako.

"As stated previously, this girl has been absolved of all crimes. And I think I'll need to have another talk with your kappa elders about your treatment of the gods." Kanako said acidly.

"…" Satoko slunk back behind her brother.

"Wait! Before you go. Hina… do you remember anything? Of how you got possessed?" Sora asked.

"…I…" Hina looked at the ground, trying to remember. "…I remember, you guys had just left down the river… and I was sitting down taking a rest… and then…" She shook her head. "I think I heard a voice? A woman's voice… but…" She looked up at them. "That's it. I can't remember much after that. Only that I hated everything, and…" She looked at the ground.

"Hey, hey! Don't worry about it, okay?" Sora smiled. "Don't let it make you sad! You've got a really great friend looking out for you!"

"And you guys aren't too bad yourselves." Nitori grinned. "Hey, you guys are leaving too, right? Come back and visit us sometime! You can be Youkai Mountain's official human ambassadors!"

"Again with the human thing…" Reimu shook her head.

"Hey, hey! I'm not looking down on you guys this time!" Nitori laughed. "Although, you guys do have really short lifespans…"

Sora and Reimu pulled out their weapons.

"Ah! Kidding, kidding!" Nitori laughed.

* * *

"Her name is Sanae." Kanako said, showing them a photograph of three people- herself, a younger, green-haired girl, and an even younger girl with a frog hat. "She's my shrine maiden, and to be honest, a surrogate daughter to me. …Even if Moriya is actually related to her by blood." Kanako sighed. The kappa (plus Hina) had gone, and had left Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy alone with her. "And, this one is Suwako. She's the other goddess of this shrine, and my dear friend. It was about two years ago that they both suddenly disappeared. No messages, no signs, no indications that they were even leaving…" She put the photo back on the wall. "I just don't understand it. They're nowhere in this world. I've considered going out myself and looking in other worlds for them, but I can't leave. What am I supposed to tell the denizens of this world? They don't know about other worlds, of course. So I just stay here and wait and hope that they'll return."

"That's terrible…" Sora said sadly.

"But, you are looking for precious people as well, are you not? So, heroes… may I ask you a favor?"

"We'll keep an eye out for them." Reimu said immediately.

"Now that's three people we need to look for along with the King and your friends." Goofy said. "Alice, and now Sanae and Suwako."

"What? Another person was taken from their world?" Kanako asked, surprised.

"Yeah. This world called Wonderland. She's a Magician, and the Heartless took her for some reason." Sora said.

"…This is troubling. These Heartless are taking people from their worlds…?" She shook her head. "No, no, I mustn't jump to conclusions. Sanae and Suwako might not have been taken by these creatures, considering I had never seen them before recently…" She looked at the four of them and crossed her arms. "In any case, you know of my task for you. If you find any clues… any at all…"

"Of course." Donald nodded.

"Ah, hold on." Kanako turned and looked through a nearby dresser, finding something and smiling. She turned back and held out a bright, almost cartoonish looking object.

"Huh? What's that?" Reimu asked.

"Oh!" Goofy exclaimed. He and Donald rushed up to it to get a better look. "Donald, is it-?"

"It is!" Donald said, snatching the item out of Kanako's hand and looking at it closely.

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"A gummi block! It's the same stuff used to build our ship!" Goofy exclaimed.

"I found it not too long ago. I had thought that it was not from this world, but I wasn't quite sure what it was. You may keep it, if you like." Kanako said. "As thanks for agreeing to help me."

"This could have been the king's!" Donald said excitedly. "He could've been here! This is great!"

"Thanks, Kanako." Reimu said.

"Well, then." Kanako smiled. "I shall send you all back to the foot of the mountain. I pray for your safety and good fortune!"

* * *

"What drew the Heartless to that world?" a man's voice asked from the darkness.

"Several things. A goddess's frustrations at the loss of her loved ones. A goddess's despair over her own misfortune. I had thought it would be easy to use those opportunities to create some powerful Heartless, but it seems the experiment was only half a success." A woman's voice answered him.

Another voice laughed. "Not a very good experiment if they could turn her back from a Heartless with just a hug!"

"It is a good theory, no doubt about it. It _did _work at first, after all. But those children are the problem. They've found one of the Keyholes." The first man's voice said.

"Fear not. It will take them ages to find the rest." The woman replied.

In the middle of the dark meeting place, an image appeared of the four heroes making their way through the trees of the Great Youkai Forest towards their ship.

"Besides, he remains blissfully unaware of our other plan." The woman continued.

"Yes, the princesses…" The other voice said.

"They are falling into our hands, one by one." The woman smirked.

The image of the heroes melted away and was replaced by a new one; one of Alice Margatroid looking around wildly in darkness, clutching tightly to a blonde doll in a red dress.

"Speaking of which…"

* * *

"This gummi block…" Sora said, holding it up to the light of the Gummi Ship as he leaned back in his chair. Reimu was looking through Alice's grimoire and Donald and Goofy were piloting the ship as always. "I wonder what it's for."

"I dunno." Donald shrugged, maneuvering away from a large asteroid spinning in front of them.

"Maybe Leon'll know." Goofy said.

"Hmm… He might." Donald said, half distracted by piloting. "Back to Traverse Town, then?"

"Sounds good to me." Reimu said. "I'm hungry."

"…You know, I am too. Well, actually… not… really." Sora frowned. "You know, I haven't been hungry or tired this whole time. How long has it been since we even started this adventure?"

"I've been asking myself that myself for a while." Reimu frowned as well. "I mean, there's no way it's only been a few hours since we lost our world. And yet, I don't feel like it's been anything but."

"It's interworldly travel doin' that." Goofy said. "Time's a little wonky when you're travelin' through space."

"Not to mention that other worlds have their own time zones and such!" Donald said. "But the ship clock and calendar say that it's been about five days, so-"

"FIVE DAYS?!" Sora and Reimu got up together, both dropping the gummi block and grimoire.

"No way." Reimu shook her head.

"W-We haven't slept in five days." Sora said.

"We haven't eaten for five days." Reimu said.

"How can that be possible? Wouldn't our bodies like, give out or something?" Sora asked.

"I haven't gone to the bathroom in five days." Reimu shook her head again.

"That's gummi travel, for ya!" Goofy laughed. "It messes with ya. Don't worry, we can get food when we get back to Traverse Town, okay?"

"Now sit down!" Donald said. "Sora, pick that up!"

Sora picked up the gummi block and sat back down, as Reimu swore under her breath as she picked up the grimoire. So much for keeping it safe, if she was just going to drop it everywhere.

* * *

"Well, well, well! If it isn't my favorite journeyers!" As the four of them walked through the entrance gate into Traverse Town, they were suddenly met by a familiar face throwing a familiar wrench into the air.

"Hello, Rika." Reimu said. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I was just on my way to that old man Cid's place to show off the Flower Tank! I've been doing some work on it." She grinned. "But man, I haven't seen you guys for almost a week! I thought you died or something."

"Yeah… almost a week…" Sora said. It would take some used to this new odd concept of time, but at least Traverse Town seemed to be on the same page as the Gummi Ship clock.

"So what're you guys here for? Need supplies? Rinnosuke's been so lonely lately. You should go say hi."

"He's lonely?" Reimu asked.

"Well, I mean, I don't know if he actually is lonely, since he always likes to be alone reading his books, but…" Rika scratched her ear.

"Well, maybe later. Do you know where Leon is?" Donald asked.

"Leon? …No." She pouted. "Leon and them never let me hang out with them and help them fight back the Heartless, so I don't know where they are."

"They don't? But you have a _tank_! And it hurts! I KNOW, you hit me with it!" Reimu said.

"It's 'cause I'm younger than everyone. Like, younger than you guys." She crossed her arms angrily. "It's not fair. I wanna help too. I can handle myself fine." She sighed and twirled her wrench around her fingers. "But, that's why I go to Cid's! He's part of their group! And if I can show him all the stuff I can do, he's gotta be able to put in a good word for me with them!" Her eyes seemed to sparkle. "I mean, I'm the best engineer in this whole town! There's no reason I can't help out!"

"Well, I guess we'll just go look ourselves." Sora shrugged. "Good luck with your tank, Rika!"

"Hey, tell you what. I'll put in a good word for you, too." Reimu smiled.

"Would you?" Rika beamed at her. "Thanks! Well, go on and find them, then! I'm off to the accessory shop!" She skipped up the stone steps leading to Cid's shop. They watched her give them a final wave, which they returned, and went through the door.

"Okay, let's go find Leon!" Donald said.

"And then let's get some food!" Sora said happily.

* * *

After wandering around Second District for quite some time, fighting off annoying elemental magic-wielding Heartless, the four of them stopped to catch their breath in the alleyway behind the district.

"Man… they're not anywhere…" Sora said.

"No Leon, no Aerith, no Kotohime…" Reimu said, sitting down on a crate. "Where could they be?"

Goofy had stepped down into an area of water leading into a tunnel blocked off by metal bars to pour some water on his head. As he brought his head up, he stopped.

"Hey, fellers. I think I hear something comin' through here."

"Huh?" The other three went into the water (well, Reimu floated) and listened at the barred off tunnel. Sure enough, though it was faint, they could hear voices. Voices that sounded like…

"Leon! And I think that's Aerith!" Reimu said.

"How'd they get in there?" Sora asked.

"How are _we_ gonna get in there?" Donald asked.

"…These bars don't seem that sturdy." Goofy shook them a little. "Hey! Maybe if we hit 'em hard enough, we can get through!"

"Isn't that against the law or something?" Sora asked.

"Oh, Sora. You sweet naïve fool." Reimu laughed.

"What?" He said, frowning at her.

"Sora, help us." Donald said, bringing him back away from the bars. "Reimu, you stand back. Sora, you follow me, okay?"

"Um, okay, but what are we-?" He was suddenly pushed after Donald by Goofy, running right towards the metal bars. "Wait wait WAIT WAIIIIIIIT" Donald slammed into the bars, followed by him, and finally by Goofy. Their combined weight made the bars topple over, opening a path into the secret waterway.

"Way to use your heads, guys." Reimu clapped for them.

"Yeah, yeah." Sora grumbled, helping Donald up from the water. They walked into the tunnel, and suddenly the three of them plummeted down again as there was no ground underwater for which to walk on, forcing them to swim through the dark waterway, with Reimu giggling above them, floating. They made their way through the waterway and found themselves in a lit cavern, where Leon was practicing with his sword as Aerith watched. They looked over as they saw the swimming boys and floating girl coming towards them, and walked over and helped the boys out of the water.

"So, you found the Keyhole." Leon said to them.

"Yeah. The Keyblade locked it automatically." Sora said.

"Good!" Aerith smiled.

"Um, what exactly are these Keyholes?" Reimu asked. "We've actually found two of them."

"And one was salt." Donald added.

"Salt?" Aerith asked, interested.

"Every world among the stars has a Keyhole." Leon said. "And each one leads to the heart of that world. There must be one in this town as well."

"Heart… of the world?" Reimu asked.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked. "A world can have a heart?"

"It was in Ansem's report." Aerith said.

"The Heartless enter through the Keyhole and do something to the world's core." Leon said. "That's the world's 'heart'."

"Well, when they're done with it… what happens to the world?" Sora asked.

"In the end, it disappears." Aerith said sadly.

"What!" The foursome exclaimed.

"That's why your key is so important." Leon said.

"Please lock the Keyholes. You're the only one who can." Aerith said.

"Is it enough to just lock the Keyholes?" Reimu asked. "What if the Heartless try to get through them?"

"…We don't know." Leon said. He looked surprised as Reimu smiled.

"So it's a good thing I'm putting up those seals then!"

"Seals?" Aerith asked. "Like, protective ones?"

"Yeah. When Sora locked the first Keyhole, the idea just popped into my mind, like it was something really important I needed to do but didn't really know why." She nodded. "So I did it again with the second one, too. I should keep doing it, huh?"

"That's a good idea." Aerith nodded.

"So we're gonna keep going to other worlds and looking for their Keyholes?" Sora asked.

"Seeing other worlds would probably serve you well." Leon replied.

"Yeah!" Donald said.

"We gotta find your friends! And King Mickey!" Goofy added.

"You're right. Okay then!" Sora grinned. "Let's just keep doing that then!"

"Ah, Leon." Reimu interrupted. "I just remembered the reason we were looking for you."

"Oh, yeah!" Sora pulled out the gummi block from his pocket. "This gummi block's different from the others. Do you know what it's for?"

Leon stared at the block blankly, thinking.

"…Ask Cid. He should know." Aerith smiled.

"Oh. Okay!" Sora nodded and pocketed the gummi block.

"Back to Cid's then! Rika should be there- oh, right!" Reimu looked at Leon. "Hey, could you guys maybe give Rika a chance? She wants to help out, and-"

"No." Leon shook his head. "She's too young, reckless, and has a big head for a little kid."

"…We're just worried for her." Aerith said. "I mean, I've seen what she can make, and Cid has said it's pretty impressive for a kid her age, but that's really all she has. You guys have the Keyblade and magic and your spell cards, and the rest of us have fighting knowledge and can hold our own, but if something were to damage Rika's inventions during an attack, what would she do then? She can't defend herself."

"…Oh." Reimu said, nodding. "Okay. I see." She and the boys turned around to leave the cavern, when Leon stopped them again.

"Wait, Sora. Take this with you." He tossed a green stone at Sora, who caught it. "This stone holds some mysterious power. I've been carrying it for luck. I want you to hold onto it."

"Wow, thanks!" Sora said, looking at it. "How do you use it?"

Leon looked blankly at him, his cheeks getting a little red. Sora grinned and pocketed the stone, deciding it would be better to just let Leon alone.

* * *

"Well, if it ain't a gummi block." Cid said, looking closely at the item that Sora gave him.

"Yup." Donald said.

"What's this one for?" Goofy asked.

"You're kiddin' me! You're flyin' a gummi ship and you don't know nothin' about navigation gummis? Bunch of pinheads. Interspace ain't no playground."

"There's a lot we don't know. So what!" Sora said angrily. "We have to use the gummi ship to go to other worlds. We don't have a choice."

"…I could so protect myself." Rika was sitting in an armchair in front of the fireplace, listening to Reimu telling her what Leon and Aerith had said. "And I'm not reckless. I know when to stay out of a fight."

"Well, they don't seem to think so." Reimu shrugged. "Maybe you just have to prove it to them."

"Woah, easy. I didn't know." Cid said, raising his eyebrows at Sora's outburst. "No hard feelings, all right? Well, I guess I could lend y'all a hand, then."

"Thanks." Sora said.

"Basically, with navigation gummis, you can go to new places. You want one on your ship, right?"

Donald and Goofy nodded.

"I'll install it for you. But I got this thing I gotta go deliver first."

"What?" Sora asked.

"Just this book. It's real old." Cid brought it up from under the counter. "When the guy brought it in, it was practically falling apart. Too beat up to restore it to the way it was. But overall, I did a decent job puttin' it back together. Anyway, you mind deliverin' it for me? It's the old house past the Third District. Look for a big fire sign."

"Oh! Idea." Reimu said, looking up at them, and back at Rika. "Rika, you come with us! If we have to deal with Heartless while doing this, then we can train you a little on the way. And then-"

"Oh, no. Don't tell me she's got you tryin' to get her into the group." Cid shook his head and looked at Rika. "Look, girlie, you're great with machines and I would let you join right now, but Leon's the boss and he says-" He was interrupted by a sudden rumbling and what sounded like the ringing of bells.

"Wh-what was that?" Sora asked when the rumbling and rings had stopped.

"Was that the bell at the gizmo shop?" Rika asked. "I thought no one rang it anymore because Heartless like to gather there."

"Must've been, though. It's the only bell in town that could be so loud." Cid said. He looked at the others. "Go check it out if you want, but deliver that book for me first. When you're done, stop by the house in the Third District. I'll be there."

"The haunted house?" Rika asked excitedly.

"It ain't any more haunted than I am! Though, now that I think about it, I do have an annoying little girlie who keeps haunting me lately. And that annoying little girlie ain't allowed in the house, either."

Rika pouted and crossed her arms. "Well, then I'm gonna go check out the gizmo shop! I wanna know why the bell's ringing!" She ran out the doors before anyone could stop her.

"That stupid…" Cid shook his head. "She's gonna get herself killed. This is why Leon doesn't want her hanging around us."

"We'll go get her after we deliver that book." Reimu shrugged.

"Shouldn't we go after her now?" Sora asked. "I mean, it's dangerous!"

"I'm guessing that neither you or Leon or anyone else has actually seen Rika deal with the Heartless before." Reimu said to Cid.

"Well…" Cid scratched the back of his head.

"Just because she's a kid doesn't mean she can't handle herself."

"Wait, didn't you want to train her _because_ she can't handle herself?" Donald asked.

"I never said it was because she isn't capable of defending herself. And I changed my mind. Training's boring." Reimu shrugged. "We'll check up on her after we deliver the book, like I said."

"You're really sure she'll be okay, huh…" Cid frowned.

"I believe in her." Reimu smiled.

"Well, if you're sure, then we can go see after we do this!" Sora grinned, picking up the book from the counter. "Third District, big fire sign, right?"

"That's the one." Cid nodded.

"Okay! We'll meet you at the haunted house then!" Goofy waved as the four of them exited the shop.

"I said, it ain't haunted…" Cid shook his head as they left. He was getting really tired of dealing with these kids and their attitudes.

* * *

**Oh, Sora, you silly child. Following the law is for chumps.**

**Hey everyone, it's Frost- wait, this chapter only took like three days from the last one! What is happening**

**So yeah I decided to just say to hell with Deep Jungle. It was a decision that did not take a while to think about. I think I've made it pretty clear that I detest that world and I wanted to get on with the plot so yeah sorry if Deep Jungle has a special place in your heart but as far as this fic is concerned there are no Heartless messing with that world so do not fear**

**Since I released the last chapter before Hopeless Masquerade and Double Dealing Character got released, I was unable to gush about them. BUT NOW I CAN**

**Like oh my god Kokoro is so CUTE and her theme is so good and NOW WE HAVE A MERMAID AND A WEREWOLF (AND SHE ACTUALLY HOWLS DURING HER SPELL CARDS ITS SO GREAT) AND A HEADLESS GIRL and the music is so great like DAMN ZUN you've done a good**

**I just. congratulations. (congratulations scene from evangelion here) (kagerou's theme is the best imo)**

**of course now that begs the question: how will these new characters mess up the plans I have for this fic? especially what with Kokoro being, well, herself. (initial) lack of emotions and her name literally meaning heart and all that. are we sure she's not a kingdom hearts character herself**

**to these questions, I say, stop asking questions WE'LL GET THERE WHEN WE GET THERE**

**so yeah NEXT TIME: a book is delivered! friends are found! heartless are fought! a poltergeist is confused as to why people are suddenly hanging out in her house!**

**Comments, questions, and suggestions always appreciated. Thanks for reading! uwu**


	16. Blue and Gold-Eyed Jealousy

"This is it." Sora said, standing before the big red sign with a flame carved into it.

"So, uh, what do we do?" Goofy asked. "There's no doorbell or nothing."

"Isn't it obvious?" Reimu said, fixing her skirt. Upon their arrival into the Third District, they had been ambushed by some Heartless, including some particularly annoying ones that flew around out of the boys' reach, leaving Reimu to have to deal with them. They had ganged up on her and though she had managed to beat them back, her clothes and hair had gotten quite ruffled. "Shoot it with fire, right? Why else would there be a big picture of fire there?"

"Good point." Donald said. He lifted his staff and cast the spell, hitting the image of the flame right in its center. The red door rumbled and rose, opening into a dark cavern.

"Onward!" Sora said cheerfully. They walked into the cavern, and stopped as they saw it was filled with water, with a dark house on a small island in the center. There were large stones in the water, making a path to the island. Sora jumped onto the first one, and yelped as the stones suddenly began moving on their own, alternating between going left and right.

"You better time your jumps right." Reimu said to the boys, simply flying over to the island and landing, turning to them and watching them try not to jump off the rocks into the water, which was quite difficult, since it was pretty dark and hard to see. Eventually all three boys made it to the island and nodded at Reimu, who turned around and looked at the door of the house, which was boarded up and covered with cloth.

"…Someone lives here?" Sora asked. "It looks empty."

"Maybe they're not home, or they're sleepin'." Goofy said.

"Let's at least look around." Reimu said. The four of them walked around the house, looking for any other doors. Reimu flew up to peer into the windows of the house's second floor, but landed shaking her head. "It _is _empty."

"Look over here! There's a hole!" Donald said, pointing. There was a large hole in the wall, leading into a dark, empty room. Sora and Reimu shrugged at each other and climbed in. It was pretty dusty and aside from a circular platform in the middle of the room, it was completely empty.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Reimu asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Cid did say it was an old house past the fire sign…" Donald said.

"Maybe he was confused." Goofy said.

Sora was not listening to their conversation. Rather, Sora had frozen up, as his chest felt suddenly very warm, and he heard a very familiar voice.

"There's something about this musty place…"

Sora stood absolutely still as he watched Kairi walk past him, giving him a little smile.

"It reminds me of the secret place back home, where we used to scribble on the walls." She looked at the room's wall, and turned her head to him. "Remember?"

"Hey, Sora. Are you okay?" Reimu said. Sora looked at her, confused, and turned back to Kairi- but, there was nothing there.

"D-did you see…?" Sora said, trailing off at Reimu's rising eyebrows.

"Um. It's a wall. Houses tend to have them."

Sora frowned and looked back at where Kairi had been. Or rather, hadn't been. What on earth had just happened? Now that he thought about it, that was the second time he had seen Kairi when she wasn't really there; the first time, he remembered, he had mistaken Yuffie for her. Why did he keep seeing her? Was he going crazy?

"Hellooooooo. Is Sora home? I'd like to speak to him, please." Reimu walked over and knocked on his head.

"Ow, ow! Cut it out!" Sora pushed her away, rubbing his head.

"Well, well… You've arrived sooner than I expected."

The four of them quickly turned as they saw an old man holding a bag in the room.

"Wha… You knew we were coming?" Sora asked.

"Of course." The old man chuckled.

"Are you the owner of this old house?" Reimu asked.

"Why, yes, my dear! My name is Merlin." Merlin bowed his head to her. "As you can see, I am a sorcerer. I spend much of my time traveling. It's good to be home!" He looked at Donald and Goofy. "Your king has requested my help."

"King Mickey?" Goofy asked.

"Yes, indeed. Donald, Goofy. And who might you two youngsters be?" He looked at the youngsters.

"I'm Sora."

"Reimu."

"Ah." Merlin nodded knowingly. "So, you have found the key."

"What did the king ask you to do?" Donald asked him.

"Just a moment…" Merlin said, climbing up onto the platform in the middle of the room. He set down his bag and opened it. "Presto!" He motioned with his hands as furniture began floating out of the bag, growing larger and larger and setting themselves down, until with a bright flash of light, the room was warmly lit and very cozy, looking properly inhabited.

"Amazing!" Reimu said, clapping.

"There, now. Ahem." Merlin smiled at Reimu's applause. "Your king asked me to train you in the art of magic."

"That's great!" Sora said excitedly. "I can do three spells now."

"Three spells! Already! My boy, you must be a natural!" Merlin laughed. "And what about you, my dear?" He looked at Reimu.

"Ah, no magic for me." Reimu shook her head. "I use spell cards."

"Spell cards, eh? Well, that's magic too, my dear, but I confess it's a vastly different branch of magic than I know." He turned back to Sora. "You can come here and train anytime you like. In fact, why don't I do something for you right now?"

"Train right now? In here?" Sora asked.

"Oh, no! This is a spell that doesn't require any training in combat!" Merlin laughed. "It's called Cure. It will no doubt be of extreme use to you!"

"Oh, Donald knows that one." Reimu said, looking at him as he nodded.

"It's very important to know. I'd been wondering if you were gonna learn it by yourself like the other ones."

"Here now, my boy. For this spell, think of the calming effects of nature…"

As Merlin helped Sora try to learn the spell while Donald and Goofy watched, Reimu wandered around the room, looking at the books and bottles piled up against the walls. They had such weird titles, like _A Report of Contracts and Magical Girls, by Q.B. _or _A Beautiful Flower Blooming Violet Every Hundred Years, by Maribel Hearn _and others in entirely different languages she didn't know. She slid the book by Hearn out from under the other books it was beneath and examined it. It had a rather gaudy and elaborate cover, with flowers of different shades of purples covering everything but the title and author's name. As she looked closer at it, she frowned in confusion as she saw that, rather disturbingly, tiny drawings of red eyes and hands were looking and reaching out from the flowers, making the gaudiness tinged with creepiness. Curious, she flipped through the book, and stopped on a page with a bookmark in it. She looked at one paragraph.

_But of course, that's not how life works. Rather than piece the clues together that I had so thoughtfully laid out for him to realize the truth for himself, the stupid oaf went back to his own world with his precious gold to prove that he was a 'hero', or whatever idiotic thing he had entered this world for in the first place was. I watched the poor, heartbroken child run back to her home in the volcano, and later as she exited to try to retrieve the pieces of her precious thing that the oaf had wrecked, she was captured by the false king of whose title was the child's. I do not know how her or the oaf's stories end, as I became bored with those worlds and so moved on to the next one. This one was home to a beautiful island city, very advanced for its own time, filled with beautiful crystals and humans very similar to youkai in terms of aging, which attracted me to this world very much. Unfortunately, I may have… accidentally contributed to the sinking of the city, as curiosity got the better of me one day as I_

Reimu, bored of the story that was obviously some kind of fantasy novel or something, glanced over at the other page with the bookmark resting on it, and nearly dropped the book, as she realized that the bookmark wasn't a bookmark at all, but a _spell card_. It was much different-looking than hers, which had made her not notice until actually looking at it; it was dark violet, with little red ribbons trimming the edges and a drawing of what seemed to be butterflies in light purple ink. The name of the card was written in huge, loopy handwriting that made it absolutely impossible to decipher. In fact, the absolute gaudiness of it all was probably the reason Reimu had thought it was just a bookmark, as it matched with the book perfectly. But, if the card matched the book, then could the author, this 'Maribel Hearn', have been a spell card user? Could there be something about spell cards in the book itself? She stole a quick glance back at the boys and Merlin, who were still trying to teach Sora the healing spell. Sora was able to make a few bright green leaves appear from nowhere, but they were not enough to do any real healing like Donald's Cures could.

"Would you like that book?"

Reimu jumped at the sudden voice next to her. She turned and found herself face to face with a jolly-looking old woman smiling at her.

"You can take it, if you like. I don't think Merlin would mind."

"Oh, uh, thank you." Reimu said. "Um, who are you?"

"I'm the Fairy Godmother." The old woman said. "Their king asked me to help as well. I hope I can be of some assistance throughout your journey."

"Oh, woken up then, have you?" They turned and saw Merlin and the boys looking at them. Sora looked very pleased with himself, which meant he must have succeeded in learning Cure for himself.

"Well I can't stay in that pumpkin forever, you know." The Fairy Godmother waved her wand at Merlin.

"Reimu, what's that?" Donald asked, pointing at the book.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Sora said, pulling out the old book Cid had given them. "Merlin, Cid wanted to give this back to you."

"Oh!" Merlin took it from his hands and looked at it happily. "Thank you."

"What kind of book is it?" Goofy asked.

"I don't even know, myself." Merlin shook his head. "In fact, it's not mine. Somehow it found its way into my bag one day. It was such a curious book, I asked Cid to repair it for me." He turned to the wall, looking for a place to put the book down. "Well, I guess I'll put it here somewhere, for now. This book holds a great secret. The missing pages will unlock it." He found a small podium and rested the book on it, then stepped back up onto the platform and sat down on his armchair. "Do look at it whenever you like. My best regards to Cid for repairing it for me."

"Pardon me for interrupting," the Fairy Godmother said. "But I'm feeling something quite magical calling out from your pocket, young man." She pointed at Sora. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the stone that Leon had given him.

"Do you know what this is?" Sora said, walking to her and holding it out at her.

"The poor thing!" The Fairy Godmother took the stone and held it in her hands, looking at it like it was a cute kitten. "He has turned into a summon gem."

"A…summon gem?" Sora asked.

"This little creature lived in a world that was consumed by darkness. When a world vanishes, so do its inhabitants. But this one had such a strong heart, he became a gem instead of vanishing with his world."

"That's weird." Reimu said.

"Well, yes, I suppose it is." The Godmother laughed. "But, though I cannot completely heal him from this state, I will make it so he is able to help you on your journey. Now, watch! Bibbity Bobbity boo!" With a wave of the old woman's wand, the stone began to sparkle, and with a flash of light, a name suddenly entered the minds of Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy: _Simba_.

"Whenever you call, he will help you. If you find any more of these, bring them to me."

"Are they going to be stuck like this forever?" Reimu asked, looking at the gem pityingly as Sora put it back in his pocket.

"Don't worry, when their worlds are restored they will return there." The Godmother nodded. "Please help save them."

"We will." Sora nodded.

"You'd best go see Cid before going anywhere else." Merlin said, and stopped as he noticed that Reimu was holding the violet book. "Ah! Would you like to borrow that? I…" He frowned and reached out for it, and Reimu gave it to him. "My goodness. I've never seen this book before."

"Really?" Reimu asked. "It was underneath some other ones."

"Oh, no. I'd remember a book that looked like this… Oh my." He had noticed the eyes and hands on the cover. "Oh, no, this book is not mine. Much like the one you just gave me. I wonder how it got here?"

"Perhaps it wanted to be found by you, Reimu." The Fairy Godmother said.

"Eh? You think so?" Reimu took the book back.

"You keep it, my dear." Merlin nodded. "When a book wants to be read by someone, it will chase them to the ends of the earth, you know."

"Um."

* * *

[BGM: Alice Maestra]

The four of them entered the Third District, chatting happily together. Sora was flipping through the violet book interestedly, while Reimu was staring intently at the handwriting on the spell card, giving up and putting it back in the book as she took it from Sora.

"Hey, that haunted house we're supposed to be meeting Cid in is around here, right?" She asked.

"Yeah. We should try going up-" Sora started, but stopped as several Soldier Heartless appeared in front of them, raising their claws to attack. The four of them quickly summoned their weapons, but had no time to even raise them as suddenly, a girl's voice yelled from above them.

"YAHOO~!"

Two figures dropped down in front of them- or rather, one dropped to the ground, and the other was in the air, flying on a broomstick. The figure on the ground slashed at two Soldiers with a dark red and black sword, while the person on the broom pointed at the remaining Heartless, shooting several small rainbow-colored stars at them, destroying them. Sora and Reimu gasped as the boy lowered his sword and turned to them, grinning, and the girl landed lightly on the ground next to him, grinning as well as she stamped the ground with her broom.

"There you are." The boy said. "What's going on?"

"Riku! Marisa!" Sora and Reimu leapt at them, Reimu dropping the book and clasping Marisa's hands in hers, excitedly laughing, as Sora hesitantly tried to pull Riku's mouth wide open. It couldn't hurt to check, after all, seeing as he had been seeing a Kairi that wasn't there everywhere lately.

"Hey, hey, cut it out." Riku pushed Sora's hands out of his mouth.

"Where the hell have you two been?!" Reimu said, placing her hands on her hips and looking angrily from Marisa to Riku. "Do you know how worried we've been?"

"Hey, now, we could ask the same of you!" Marisa said, picking up her broom, which had fallen when Reimu had taken her hands. "We've been lookin' everywhere for you, ya know?"

Sora just smiled wide and looked as if he were about to cry. "Riku, Marisa…!" His smile faltered, as he looked around them. "Wait a second, where's Kairi?"

"Oh… she's not with you, then…" Marisa frowned. "Damn. And here I've been thinkin' she was with you guys the whole time…"

"Hey, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the island, too." Riku said. He walked away a little, looking up into the night sky. "We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now."

"…" Sora and Reimu looked at the ground sadly.

"Hey, no frowns, y'hear?" Marisa smiled and stood in front of them, putting her hands on their shoulders. "I mean, now we're from two and two to four! Add one Kairin and we're five again!"

"Yeah. We'll all be together again soon." Riku smiled. Unseen by him and Marisa, several Shadow Heartless rose from the ground behind them. "Don't worry. Just leave everything to us. Marisa and I know this-" He stopped as Sora and Reimu sprang into action, Sora defeating half of the Shadows with the Keyblade, and Reimu leaping into the air and shooting a few Homing Amulets at the others, destroying them. She flipped and landed daintily next to Sora, who stood up from his fighting stance and grinned, resting the Keyblade on his shoulder.

"Leave it to who?" Sora said.

"Ah…" Marisa said, her eyes wide, staring at Reimu.

"Sora, what did you-" Riku started, but Sora interrupted him.

"We've been looking for you guys and Kairi, too." He looked back at Donald and Goofy. "With their help."

"Who are they?" Riku asked slowly.

"You can fly?" Marisa said to Reimu, not paying attention to the boys.

"Yeah. And you can, too?" Reimu grinned. "Hey, if both of us can fly, do you think Kairi is able to, too? How did you know you could fly?"

"Um, it's this broom…" Marisa looked at it. "The broom can fly. Not… me."

"Oh. Well, I guess that's better than what I had to do." Reimu laughed. "I got hit by a tank and got blasted into the air- it was right here, actually, in this plaza!" She looked over at the boys who were looking at them, and she quieted.

"Ahem." Donald started now that the girls were paying attention. "My name is-"

"We've visited so many places and worlds, looking for you." Sora cut him off.

"Really? Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed." Riku said coolly.

"So it just came to you? Flying?" Marisa asked Reimu.

"Yeah."

"And those papers you were shootin'? That was danmaku, right? Did that just come to you, too?"

"You know about danmaku, too?" Reimu said excitedly. "Yeah! Was it like that for you, too? Those stars were really cool!"

"…" Marisa walked over to Riku.

"Hey, guess what?" Poor Goofy wanted to be a part of the conversation, too. He put his hands on Sora's shoulders. "Sora's the Keyblade master."

"Who would've thought it?" Donald gave a dirty look at him, obviously mad that he had been unable to introduce himself.

"What's that mean!" Sora said angrily.

"So, this is called a Keyblade?" Riku held it out in front of him and Marisa, the two of them looking closely at it.

"Huh?" Sora looked down at his empty hand, having not even noticed that Riku had taken it. "Hey, give it back." He reached out for it.

"Catch!" Riku backed up and threw it at him, which he caught, though he fumbled it a bit.

"Okay, so, you're coming with us, right?" Sora dismissed the Keyblade and looked eagerly at the two of them. "We've got this _awesome_ rocket. Wait 'til you see it!"

"We don't have enough chairs for everyone, but we could take turns during trips." Reimu added.

"No, they can't come!" Donald said.

"What?" Sora asked.

"Why not?" Reimu frowned.

"Forget it!"

"What the hell, Donald?" Reimu said.

"Come on! They're our friends!"

"I don't care!" Donald crossed his arms.

"They're gone." Goofy pointed, and the three of them turned and saw that Riku and Marisa had indeed vanished.

"…Nice going." Sora scowled at Donald.

"Well, at least now we know they're safe." Reimu said. "And that means Kairi must be safe, too."

"I guess." Sora said, slowly turning and walking up the stairs leading to a well-lit house.

* * *

"…And so the Heartless was like, 'no, please spare me!' And I was like, 'no way!' And I stomped it right on the head and it died!" Kotohime laughed, bouncing happily on the bed. "Well, I mean, it didn't _really _talk, and I didn't _really_ say that, but the part where I stomped on it is true!"

"Is that so…" Reimu tried to look like she honestly found Kotohime's story hilarious, but it was pretty hard. The princess found the weirdest things funny and said such strange stuff. She felt a little bad for Leon and the others for having to put up with it all the time,

"But, but, is it true you guys didn't know you've been gone for five days?" Kotohime laughed again. "Hahaha! That's so funny! How do you not know when five days have passed?"

"…Space is weird." Sora mumbled, taking a bite out of the chicken on his plate. "I didn't even know I was this hungry…"

"It'll take some getting used to, I suppose." Yuffie said, sitting next to Aerith at the table.

"Hey, pass me some of that." Cid reached over for some cheese. "And I've been meaning to ask you- you guys ever hear of Maleficent?" He popped some cheese in his mouth. "I hear she's in town."

"Who is she?" Sora asked.

"A witch, man, she's a witch!" Cid said, slamming his fist onto the table. Unseen by anyone, the original inhabitant of the house winced. It was bad enough these people just started using her house, but did they have to hurt the furniture, too?

"She's the reason this town is full of Heartless." Leon said darkly, leaning on the wall opposite them. "Don't take her lightly."

"She's been using the Heartless for years." Aerith said. "They say that she has someone who creates the Heartless out of nothing, and uses that person to bring darkness to the worlds."

"We lost our world, thanks to her." Leon said. From the bed, Kotohime's bouncing got slower and quickly stopped.

"One day, a swarm of Heartless took over our world!" Cid said angrily. Suddenly, Yuffie stood up, glaring at the two men for some reason. She went over and grabbed Kotohime's hand and smiled.

"Hey, Koto! Let's go visit Rinnosuke and the boys!"

"…" Kotohime nodded and followed her out the door, with Yuffie looking back and giving the men another angry look.

"What was that all about?" Sora asked as the door shut.

"Ugh, I forgot Koto was in here." Leon shook his head.

"Oops. We gotta be careful talkin' about _that day_ around her." Cid nodded.

"What? What happened?" Reimu asked.

"Well, like Cid said, one day our world was attacked by Heartless." Aerith said. "It was around…"

"Nine years ago." Leon said.

"It was terrible." Cid said. "Lots of good folks lost their homes and lives."

"That's awful!" Donald said, his eyes wide, glancing at Sora and Reimu. As the two looked at each other, they knew what the other was thinking- _had anyone lost their life when they lost Destiny Islands? Could members of their families be dead?_

"Something happened that day to Kotohime." Aerith said sadly. "We're sure that it wasn't _just _the Heartless; something else happened that made her so childish and unpredictable."

"Couldn't that just be her normal personality?" Reimu raised her eyebrows.

"It's not just that." Leon shook his head. "We think she's so immature as a sort of… 'safe-mode'. We can't talk about _that day _or bring up certain things around her or she'll just _stop._ She'll get depressed and just stare at the floor."

"Whatever happened that day, it messed her up _bad_." Cid said.

"And it must have involved her father." Aerith added.

"Poor Kotohime…" Sora frowned.

"Our ruler, Kotohime's father, was a wise man named Ansem. He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless." Leon said.

"His report should tell us how to get rid of 'em." Cid said.

"Where's this report?" Sora asked.

"We don't know." Leon shook his head. "It got scattered when our world was destroyed."

"I'm sure Maleficent's got most of the pages." Cid scowled at his cheese.

Unseen by the occupants of the small house, the specter floating by the window was thinking hard. What could she do to get these living people out of her home? Should she make the lights blink? Topple some furniture? Oh, but then she'd have to pick it up, and something could get ruined. Why couldn't these guys just leave by themselves? She had thought that it was common knowledge that she haunted the house. Why had they come in? She wanted to yell at them, wanted to throw off her gloves and hat and kick them out, but that would be rude! She was a poltergeist. She should at least stay invisible and scare them out the old-fashioned way- she _was_ rather fond of tradition. She quietly sighed and glanced out the window, and nearly audibly gasped as she saw three figures out in the dark looking in.

* * *

"You see? It's just as I told you." The woman said, looking down at Riku and Marisa as they stared inside of the house, watching Sora and Reimu talking and laughing with those weird guys they had seen before and a whole group of other people. "While you toiled away trying to find your dear friends, they quite simply replaced you with some new companions. Evidently, now they value them far more than they do you."

Riku's fists clenched as he watched Sora laugh and throw his hands behind his head, as Reimu popped a few cheese blocks into her mouth. Marisa was frowning as well, but she looked unsure of the situation, glancing at Riku and looking a little taken aback at how angry he looked.

"You both are better off without those wretched children." The woman placed a hand on Riku's shoulder and again looked between him and Marisa. "Now, think no more of them, and come with me. I'll help you find what you're searching for…"

* * *

"So, you delivered that book?" Cid nodded approvingly at them. "Good, good. That navigation gummi's installed and ready to go. You find another one, you bring it to me." He grinned. "I threw in a warp gummi too, for the heck of it."

"Warp gummi?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. Now if you want, you can jump straight to worlds you've been to before without having to deal with Heartless and boring interspace travel!"

"How convenient." Reimu smiled.

"Well, you'll still need to go out and find new worlds if you want to get to 'em in the first place." Cid scratched his nose. Behind him, the door opened, and Yuffie and Kotohime came in, the princess looking a lot happier and back to her bouncy self.

"Heeeeeeeeeey everyone!" Kotohime said happily. "Something's going on at the gizmo shop!"

"We heard a lot of crashing and bangs." Yuffie plopped down onto a chair (unknowingly sitting right on top of the poltergeist, who floated away up to a pile of stacked boxes in the corner, silently grumbling), biting into some apple slices. "We think the Heartless're breaking stuff for fun."

"…Why does hearing the words 'gizmo shop' make me feel like we forgot something?" Reimu asked. Donald and Goofy shook their heads, unsure, and Sora blinked blankly at her until the realization hit him and he slapped his hand to his forehead.

"_RIKA!_"

* * *

"I've been perfectly fine, thank you." Rika said, taking Sora's hand to pull herself up from the ground. She looked the opposite of perfectly fine, though: her braids were nearly falling out, her clothes were scuffed up all over, and her lip was bleeding. Even still, she was grinning, and considering the fact that she was still alive even after all that time alone with the Heartless, she was in pretty good shape.

"You're lucky that thing didn't get broken!" Donald reprimanded her as she walked over to the shrunken Flower Tank and pocketed it. "If it had, and we hadn't shown up and gotten those Heartless off of you-"

"Ah, but it didn't break!" Rika laughed triumphantly, leaning against a clock. There was plenty of clockwork and gears whirring and ticking all around the gizmo shop, and as Rika began twirling her wrench between her fingers, she looked as if she really belonged there. "Even after all those Heartless kicked at it and tried to smash it, it didn't even crack! Goes to show my master craftsmanship!" She struck a pose, pointing the wrench at them. "I've been holding my own this whole time against wave after wave of Heartless! Those guys won't be able to doubt me and turn me away for being young after _this_!" She laughed again.

"…Well, I gotta say I'm impressed." Sora smiled, putting his hands behind his head. "Did you find out what's up with the bell?"

"…Well, no." Rika pouted. "Every time I tried to get up the ladder to the top where the bell is, the Heartless would show up and I'd end up getting pushed back into here." She gestured to the brightly colored, whirring room. "But now that you guys are here and we beat up all the Heartless, we should be able to get up now and solve the mystery!" She giggled.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get it done already." Reimu led the way out of the shop through stain-glass doors into the cool night air outside. Rika pushed past her and began climbing a ladder fixed to the side of the building; the other four followed, though not before Reimu gave a stern look at Sora and said,

"Don't even think about looking up." She followed Rika up the ladder, and it took Sora a second to realize what she meant, as he, slightly red-faced, climbed after her.

They reached the roof of the gizmo shop, and the four newcomers smiled together and looked eagerly at the sight presented to them from their new height: a fantastic view of Traverse Town, mainly the Second District. The lights of the town glimmered in the night, and a cool breeze blew through their hair.

"Pretty nice, isn't it?" Rika said. "But what we want is over here." She stood in front of a large, boarded up area. She knocked on the wood, and turned to them. "I don't want to bring out Flower Tank just for a bit of scrap wood. Could you guys like, burn it or something?"

"We have a better method." Donald said, grinning at Sora and Goofy.

"Huh? What meth-" Sora was cut off by Donald and Goofy grabbing him with them and positioning themselves in front of the wood. His heart fell as he realized what they were about to do. "Oh come on, guys, do we really-" He was once again pushed by Goofy into running with them, and once again Donald slammed into his target, followed by Sora, and finally Goofy. The boards broke away with their combined weight, revealing a large bell and rope.

"…That'll work." Rika said.

"So, we ring it three times, right?" Reimu asked. Rika nodded. "Well, then here goes." She pulled the rope.

_Ring_

Somewhere in the district, there was a loud rumbling noise. Sora looked out and gasped as he saw the fountain on the other end of the plaza below them change, the mosaic above the water actually flipping around into an entirely different picture, as _flames_ came from the rim of the fountain.

"Hey! It makes the fountain move!" He told the others. "Two more times, Reimu!"

_Ring_

Once again, the mosaic moved, but instead of fire, this time the floral border of the fountain glowed soft greens, blues, and purples.

"One more time!" Sora said, eagerly awaiting what cool thing the fountain would do next.

_Ring_

For the third time, the mosaic above the water turned around, this time depicting cute butterflies flying around a sprout. Water spouted up and down from the fountain, making quite a lovely display, but that wasn't the only thing special about this final change: with a bright blue light, the entire mosaic glowed, and a keyhole appeared in the image.

"Ah! Guys, it's the Keyhole!" Sora cried, pointing. The others rushed to the edge of the roof to see for themselves.

"Well, we better get down there then." Reimu stepped off of the edge, floating down. "Meet you all there!"

"H-hey…" Sora grumbled, rushing towards the ladder down, grumbling to himself. He wished he could fly like Reimu, so he and Donald and Goofy didn't have to be stuck taking the long way all the time.

The four of them caught up with Reimu right in front of the glowing Keyhole, her arms crossed and foot tapping, something she seemed to have picked up from Donald.

"Let's get this over with already." Sora summoned the Keyblade. Reimu nodded and summoned her seals, but at that moment, something huge, metal and purple dropped down from the sky between them and the Keyhole.

[BGM: Shrouding Dark Cloud]

"Huh?! Didn't we already beat this one?" Reimu jumped back, dismissing her seals in favor of Homing Amulet and her _gohei_. Sure enough, as Sora was able to actually see what was in front of them, it was the large armored Heartless that he and Reimu had fought with Donald and Goofy only a few days before when they had first met.

"Well, we know its weaknesses, then!" Sora yelled, going for its hands.

"Rika, you stand back for this one, okay?" Goofy said, helping Rika up onto the walkway above the fountain for her to hide behind. "Let us get it."

"But… Okay." Rika nodded and crouched behind the floral border of the top of the fountain, watching them deal with the Heartless.

They followed the same pattern that they had done the first time they had fought the Heartless; going after its arms and feet. And as soon as they had started, they had finished.

Wait.

What?

The four of them stared in confusion as the Guard Armor crumpled and clattered to the ground after only a few hits. Reimu tentatively walked over and kicked at its head.

"Is… Is that it?" She asked. "Really?"

Not really, as the armor began to shake and suddenly rose, standing still except for some twitching, and then did something very odd. It slumped over, its hands on the ground, and its torso began to flip upside down, and its feet floated up to where the arms should have been, the feet themselves suddenly becoming arms while the previous arms became new legs. The armor's helmet, which had been closed before, snapped open, revealing a pitch-black face inside with bright glowing yellow eyes. The Opposite Armor stepped towards them menacingly.

[BGM: Destiny's Force]

"Oh. Okay." Reimu looked over at Sora, who nodded. She shot up into the air and pointed at the Opposite Armor, beginning to fire Homing Amulets at it. That didn't last very long, however, as with incredible speed that it didn't look capable of, the Heartless shot towards her and hit her with its hand, sending her crashing into the ground.

"Reimu!" Sora cried, seeing her struggling to get up. He pointed the Keyblade at her and yelled, "_Cure!_"

The bright, glowing green leaves which Donald had used on them before appeared around her, returning her strength and vigor. She flashed a quick smile of thanks at Sora and stood up, dismissing her spell cards entirely and just relying on her _gohei_. The four of them once again went after individual parts of the armor, though it was much more difficult this time around as the Heartless was much faster and hit harder with some new tricks. It combined its legs to make a sort of deadly fan, spinning towards Donald and Goofy who both managed to just barely dodge getting hit. The torso and head continued trying to ram into Sora and Reimu, who both tried dodging and hitting it at the same time, which was not working out very well. They both swiped at the hands trying to grab them, but had to quickly get away as instead of hitting them, their weapons would nearly be grabbed and yanked away by the floating appendages. Behind them, they heard triumphant cries from Donald and Goofy; they had succeeded in destroying the legs.

"Hey, Reimu!" Sora yelled at her, rolling away from one of the Armor's fists slamming down onto the ground. "Think you could try using that spell card you used back at the coliseum?"

"I guess I could try. I kinda wanted to fight this one without any danmaku…" She shrugged.

"There'll be other ones!" Sora laughed. "Come on, we gotta seal the Keyhole, and we can't do it until this guy's dead!"

"Ah, fine, fine." She jumped into the air, this time keeping a farther distance away from the torso. She held out her hand and summoned the spell card. She looked at it intently, nodding to herself. _Okay. Last time I did this, I wasn't really fully conscious during it. But this time is different. This time I'll see what I can do for myself!_

She lifted the card and looked up at the Heartless, yelling, "Dream Sign! 「Evil-Sealin-" She stopped mid-sentence, however, as she saw herself looking at the _bottom _of the Armor's torso, its hands holding and aiming it straight at her. From the bottom of the torso, a bright white orb shot out, and was heading straight at her. As the orb made contact with her front, and searing pain shot throughout her body, and she was blasted hard into the ground, only one thing was on her mind.

This Heartless was about to die a horrible, painful, danmaku-filled death.

* * *

**Reimu is so done with everything**

**Hello everyone, it's me, Frost. Did you know that a hippo's sweat is pink? I learned that from a talking bean-dog. Ne, shiteru?**

**Riku and Marisa return to the stage! But something seems different about them. Marisa in particular seems to be sensitive to Reimu's flight and danmaku naturally coming to her, but even she seems to notice that something... off is going on with Riku. Hmmmmmmmmmmm**

**Reimu seems to be getting lots of books lately. First Alice's grimoire, and now this weird purple book with a spell card in it? And Merlin says he's never seen it before? I wonder how that book found its way to where Reimu would find it. Upupupupu.**

**What happened to Kotohime that fateful day nine years ago? Will that poor poltergeist be able to get the gang out of her house? Will Sora and Reimu be able to lock and seal the Keyhole? Only one of these questions will be answered next time. Heh.  
**

**Comments, questions, and suggestions always appreciated. Make sure you all go buy Animal Crossing New Leaf on Sunday. Do it. Do it now. I mean on Sunday. And if you're reading this after Sunday then yeah do it now. Yee**


	17. A Heartless in the Blue Sky

[BGM: (It's still Destiny's Force ha ha)]

"Reimu! Are you okay?" Sora yelled, watching her shakily rise from the small crater that resulted from her hitting the ground.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She spat some blood onto the ground. "This thing is _toast_, though." She rose into the air and summoned her spell card again. The Opposite Armor grabbed its torso again and made to repeat the orb attack, but this time she was ready for it. She easily dodged it, like it was just a huge danmaku bullet, but had no time to rest as the Heartless kept shooting orbs at her. Thankfully, this provided the boys enough time to heal up and attack the Heartless as it was distracted, effectively stopping it from shooting the orbs.

"Now, Reimu! Do it!" Sora yelled.

"Dream Sign!" Reimu held out the spell card towards the Heartless. "「Evil-Sealing Circle_」__!" _This time, Reimu was fully conscious to see her own spell card. She watched as red amulets surrounded her by the hundreds, completely filling the area, trapping the Heartless in an empty pocket. Sora, Donald, and Goofy managed to rush around a corner near the alleyway leading to Third District, the three of them peering around the wall shielding them from the amulets to watch. Rika shrieked and hid completely out of sight and line of fire behind the fountain's border. The Opposite Armor, unable to move horizontally or vertically because of the amulets, resorted to firing its own orbs again, which surprisingly seemed to be unaffected by Reimu's danmaku, flying towards her as if there was nothing there.

"So you're going to stick with that, are you?" Reimu muttered, dodging the orb. Her danmaku moved with her, causing the pocket the Heartless was trapped in to change as well. The Heartless was pelted from all sides by the amulets, and Reimu smirked in satisfaction. But she wasn't done yet. After all, there was still the second part of her card! "Come on, don't give up now!" She shouted, waving her_ gohei_ in the air, as she was surrounded by smaller white bullets, shooting out towards the Heartless. The bullets formed multiple rings surrounding her, and within seconds the small, white bullets became red, pointed ones. They spread out and shot out at the Heartless, which tried to dodge them, but its large size only made it be pelted again by the amulets.

"Amazing…" Sora said, his eyes wide. "I'm kinda jealous. And Marisa can do it… I wonder if Kairi can, too."

"Aw, but you're the Keyblade master!" Goofy chuckled. "You don't need'ta be jealous of Reimu!"

"I guess." Sora smiled. "She looks really cool up there. That Heartless doesn't stand a chance!"

"30…31…" Donald was counting. Sora and Goofy looked at him, confused.

"Donald? Whatcha doin' that for?" Goofy asked.

"32…33…34…" Donald was staring intently at the danmaku throwing the Heartless all around through the air. "35…36…37…38…39…"

"Oh! You're counting to see how long the timer for the card is, right?" Sora said. "I wonder how long this one is."

"40…41…42…43…44…!"

At forty-four seconds, every bullet of Reimu's suddenly exploded into white light and disappeared. Reimu, not knowing how long the spell card was herself, suddenly stopped in surprise but quickly sprang back into action, flying towards the Heartless brandishing her gohei and yelling at the boys to land the final strikes with her.

"Go time!" Sora yelled, rushing at the Heartless with Donald and Goofy. They noticed as they began hitting it that its hands had been destroyed during Reimu's spell card, leaving just the torso and head. Whack, clang, bang! The sound of their weapons hitting the armor resounded throughout the air, sounding like the bell in the tower on the Gear Shop. The Heartless fell to the ground, unmoving as the four of them wailed on it.

"Hey, guys. Stop for a second." Reimu said, jumping back away from the Heartless. "I think it's done for."

"You think?" Sora asked, backing up along with Donald and Goofy. He saw what she meant, as the remains of the Heartless had begun to shake violently, and the head looked up at the sky as a bright blue light erupted from it. From the light, a brightly shining heart rose up, spinning into the air, and disappeared. The Heartless' body faded away in more blue light.

"Woohoo! We did it!" Sora yelled. He lightly punched Reimu's arm. "You were really cool up there!"

"Yeah, I was, wasn't I?" Reimu made an air of mock smugness, but giggled and rubbed where he hit her. "We can all compliment me more after we seal this Keyhole, though."

"Right, right." Sora nodded. He stepped directly in front of the Keyhole and began to raise the Keyblade, but stopped and looked up as Rika yelled, popping up from behind the top of the fountain.

"Wait, wait! I wanna see this!" She ran down the adjacent stairs and stood off to the side next to Donald and Goofy, her eyes wide and eager.

Sora smiled at her and turned back to the Keyhole. He raised the Keyblade until it was perfectly level with it, and was no longer surprised to see a bright blue light accompanied by tiny stars come forth from the tip and shoot out into the hole, which also glowed with a blue light. The tell-tale locking noise sounded from the Keyhole, and Sora nodded in satisfaction. Reimu hopped onto the rim of the fountain and summoned her seals, placing them neatly around the Keyhole, and clasped her hands together and said her prayer. The seals vanished in red light. Suddenly, the Keyhole disintegrated, fading back into the mural of butterflies.

"Well! That's that, then." Reimu turned to the boys and Rika, who had her hands on her cheeks and stars in her eyes.

"That was so amazing! You guys are so COOL!" She hopped up and down excitedly. "You're so awesome at exterminating Heartless, and, and, and you, that Keyhole, you…!" She squealed in excitement. "Just wow! Wow wow wow!"

"Okay, okay. Yeah, we're pretty cool." Sora laughed.

"Huh?" Goofy piped up. "Hey, is that what I think it is?" He pointed at the rim of the fountain which Reimu had just hopped off. She turned to look and let out a small "oh" of surprise and picked up the gummi piece that had definitely not been there a second ago.

"Another navigation gummi!" Donald said, waddling over and taking it from her. "We ought to go see Cid and have him install it in the ship."

"Ah! I'll come with you!" Rika said. "I need to tell that old geezer how awesome I was in the Gizmo Shop!"

"Of course." Goofy patted her on the shoulder with a warm smile.

"He's probably back at First District by now." Rika said. "Come on, let's go!"

* * *

"…And as you can see, I am perfectly unharmed or scuffed up." Rika finished telling Cid her thrilling story of fighting the Heartless with minimal help from Sora and the others (which they politely kept quiet about to make her look good), as Cid looked closely at the navigation gummi.

"Well, ain't you just a little trooper." He raised his eyebrows at her, and turned to Sora. "I can't put this into your ship. It's part of a set and useless by itself." He handed it to Goofy. "Find the mate and then we can use 'em."

"Okay. Thanks." Sora nodded.

"Now, if you excuse us." Cid put a hand on Rika's shoulder and guided her over to the door to Second District.

"H-huh? What're you doing?" She wriggled free from his grasp.

"Well, I just thought you'd want to tell Leon and the others all about how you handled them Heartless." He shrugged. "But if you don't want-"

"No! No! I do! I really do!" Rika's face lit up, and she was back to excitedly moving around.

"We'll see you guys later. Good luck with the Keyholes." Cid waved at them and followed the gleeful Rika into Second District.

"I hope they let her in the group." Sora said as the door closed. "She can really help us."

"Definitely." Reimu nodded. "Hey, I'm gonna grab some stuff from the item shop. You guys want anything?"

"Do we really need anything?" Donald asked. "We haven't used any of the stuff we bought the first time."

"I suppose you're right." Reimu shrugged. "But it doesn't hurt to stock up, right?"

Donald was about to reply when the four of them heard what sounded like a crash from the accessory shop next to them.

"Wh-what was that?" Goofy asked.

Sora ran to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. "Huh? 'Temporarily Closed'?" He read off a small sign nailed to the door.

"We'll have to go in through the front!" Reimu ran down the stairs and around the corner, followed by the boys. Expecting to see an accident or a burglar in the shop, they pulled out their weapons and ran inside.

What they didn't expect to see was a small wooden puppet, crouching next to the counter, a small jeweled box on the ground next to him.

"Huh? A doll?" Reimu asked, nudging it with her foot… and shrieking as it looked up at her with big blue eyes.

"Well, well, as I live and breathe! If it isn't Pinocchio!" Jiminy Cricket hopped from Sora's shoulder down to the floor in front of the boy.

"Oh. Hi, Jiminy." Pinocchio looked down at him.

"What in the world are you doing down here?"

"Um…" Pinocchio looked nervously at the weapons in their hands. "Playing hide-and-seek."

"I just don't believe it." Jiminy started pacing around in a circle. "And here I was, worried sick about you for a whole week." He shook his head. "Why of all the—" He suddenly stopped as Pinocchio's nose somehow elongated a few inches.

"What the-?" Reimu cried out as the boys each took a step back in surprise.

"Pinocchio!" Jiminy said angrily. "Are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes!" the boy replied.

"Then tell me, what is this?" Jiminy pointed at the box next to the puppet.

"It was a present."

"No fibbing, now!"

"…What is going on." Reimu whispered to Sora.

"No idea." He whispered back.

"Pinocchio, you know you're not supposed to tell lies." Jiminy wagged his finger at the puppet. "A lie only grows and grows, 'til you get caught! Plain as the nose on your face!"

"If only Marisa could be here to listen to this." Reimu muttered. Sora stifled a giggle.

"B-but, if you want something, why wait?" Pinocchio asked. "Why not just take it?"

"Oh, my! Who told you that?" Jiminy's eyes widened. "You need some advice from your conscience!"

"That's right! You're my conscience, Jiminy!" Pinocchio laughed. "I'll never tell lies as long as you're around." As soon as he said that, his nose shrank back to its normal size with a little yellow light.

"You and your sister need to be good so you can become real children." Jiminy said. "You promised Geppetto you would be, right?"

"Oh! Do you know where Father and Medicina are?" Pinocchio asked eagerly.

"Th-they're not with you?" Jiminy's face fell.

"Jiminy, let's go find them!"

"Now, hold on!" Jiminy held up his hand as Pinocchio made to stand up. "There are all sorts of dangers and temptations out there! I'll go find Geppetto and Medicina, so you just wait here." He turned to Sora and the others. "These fellows here will be helping me."

"We will?" Sora asked.

"Well, shall we go, Sora?" Jiminy said matter-of-factly, indicating that why yes, they _were _going to be helping him.

"You could've asked us first…" Reimu muttered.

* * *

"Ah~, back on the road again!" Reimu swiveled around in her chair, popping a few tiny cookies into her mouth. After they left Pinocchio in the accessory shop, she had gone to Rinnosuke's store to buy snacks and sweets so they wouldn't be taken by surprise if they lost track of time again.

"Well, it's not exactly a road, but I get what you're saying." Sora smiled. "Hey, guys. Are we close to another world yet?"

"Nope! Just lotsa Heartless ships!" Goofy said, watching Donald shoot down the aforementioned ships.

"Hey, Reimu. That book you got at Merlin's, what is it?" Sora asked.

"Huh? Oh, this thing." She reached down to where she was keeping Alice's grimoire and the book by Hearn, and picked the latter up. "Some memoirs, I guess. I think whoever wrote this could travel between worlds too."

"Huh? Really?" Sora's eyes widened.

"Yeah, and that's not all." She pulled out the spell card. "Whoever wrote this could also use spell cards." She handed the card to him. He traced his finger around the red lace trimming the edges and squinted at the writing on it.

"…Sp…Spitting…?" He scrunched up his face, trying hard to read the card's name. "Spitting Why?"

"That is definitely not what it's called." Reimu laughed, taking back the card. "It's definitely _Spiriting Away_. But I can't make out any of the rest of it." She shook her head and placed it back in the book, and put it back on the floor. "I've flipped through the book and there's nothing about any spell cards to help me out." She put on a disgruntled expression. "The writing in the book is way too flowery and full of itself. If I ever meet this Maribel Hearn, I'm gonna punch her in the face for writing such a terrible book."

"Uh… heh…" Sora scratched his cheek nervously.

"Well, that's gonna have to wait, Reimu." Donald said. "'Cos we're getting close to a new world!"

"That was fast!" Sora grinned. "What's it called?"

"Uh… Hang on, the monitor's still lookin'." Goofy peered at the screen which told them the names of the worlds. "…"

"Well, come on! Don't leave us hanging!" Reimu said.

"It's called 'Agrabah'." Goofy said.

"Sounds exotic." Reimu put the bag of tiny cookies on her books.

"Sounds exciting!" Sora said happily.

"Prepare for landing!" Donald said, and they made their way into the world's barrier.

* * *

In a tightly packed city filled with abandoned street vendor kiosks and empty streets, a woman in black held the hand of a young girl with a red ribbon in her hair. The two of them walked down a deserted street, followed by a snake-like man in red and black, the two adults already in conversation.

"And the Keyhole?" Maleficent stopped in the middle of the street.

"The Heartless are searching for it now." Jafar caught up with her. "I'm certain we'll find it soon enough." He glanced down at the little girl. "In any case, this little one will be the first to know, won't she?"

The little girl stared up at Jafar and inched closer to Maleficent.

"So that just leaves-" Jafar was interrupted by a loud squawk as a bright red parrot flew down and perched on his shoulder.

"Jafar! I've looked everywhere for Jasmine." The parrot said in an excruciatingly irritating voice. "She's disappeared like magic!"

"Hmph. The girl is more trouble than she's worth." Jafar said darkly.

"You said you had things under control." Maleficent looked at him with contempt.

"Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in." Jafar glared at her. "But why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours when we find the Keyhole."

"We need all seven princesses of heart to open the final door." Maleficent said, with the tone of someone who has had to explain something over and over again. "Any fewer is useless."

"…" The little girl suddenly froze, staring a little ways away from the three of them, looking intently at something the adults didn't notice. Neither of them noticed her action.

"Well, if the princess is that important, we'll find her." Jafar said. He looked down at the little girl. "I'll need help from our own little princess, of course."

The little girl looked away from where she had been staring at, up at him, and then to Maleficent, waiting for something. The dark fairy nodded, and the girl let go of her hand. She raised her hand and a black aura began to surround it. The aura pulsed, and behind Jafar, four Heartless appeared, each brandishing sharp scimitars. The little girl put her hands to her head and whimpered.

"There, there, dear. I know, it hurts you to be out in the light like this." Maleficent took the child's hand and drew her closer to her. She looked at Jafar. "You know you can summon them yourself."

"I just wanted to see just our princess of darkness in action." Jafar smirked. He looked at the Heartless. "Find Jasmine and bring her to me at once." The parrot took flight and led the Heartless down the street until they were out of sight. Jafar waved his hand and even more Heartless appeared, and ran in the opposite direction.

"Don't steep yourself in darkness too long. The Heartless consume the careless." Maleficent said, watching the Heartless Jafar had conjured until they too were out of sight.

"Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary." Jafar laughed, walking away.

Next to Maleficent, the little girl was once again staring at the area she had been earlier; an abandoned fruit stand. She was staring, of course, at the princess hiding behind the watermelons, listening to everything that the villains had been saying. However, she did not tell Maleficent that the princess she was looking for was literally a few steps behind them. She withheld this information not to protect Princess Jasmine, but because she was tired of being in this world full of light that made her head hurt, and she wanted to go back home as quickly as possible. She wanted to see those two older kids that had shown up, even if they weren't very nice to her. And she really didn't care about why they were supposed to be looking for princesses and Keyholes anyway. She was tired. She tugged on Maleficent's sleeves.

"Yes, child, I know. We're leaving now."

* * *

"This isn't how I wanted our first steps on this new world to go!" Reimu yelled angrily from the air, shooting homing amulets at the Bandit Heartless that had suddenly attacked them as they entered the city.

"You really should be used to this by now." Donald said, freezing and shattering a Heartless.

"Well yeah, but normally they don't just attack us right off the bat!" Reimu pouted.

"Well, we're already done, see?" Sora said to both of them, landing a finishing strike on the last Heartless standing. It had taken them some time to defeat these ones, since they kept blocking his attacks with their own swords. The heat of the moment passed, and they all calmed down, putting away their weapons. They all took a good look around them.

"This looks like a crowded city, but where are the people?" Reimu asked.

"They must be hiding from the Heartless." Goofy said.

"Look at all these doorways that are blocked off." Sora walked through an archway that seemed to lead to a main street of sorts, and across from them was an even bigger passage, blocked off by a lot of stacked wood, crates, and pots. "Hellooooo!" He yelled into the empty street. "Anyone theeeeere?"

"Everyone's too scared, I bet." Reimu shrugged. "Save your breath."

"…Hello?" A girl's voice called from an alleyway to their left. "Is someone there?"

Reimu rolled her eyes at Sora's triumphant look in her direction. The four of them made their way into the alley, and looked around. In a corner, behind multiple stacked crates, a beautiful young woman peered out, frightened. "Who's there? Hello?"

"H-Hey!" Sora said, surprised. This girl was way too pretty to belong hiding in dirty crates.

"You're not with _them_, are you?" She asked. "Those monsters?"

"Of course not. We beat those up." Reimu smiled. "I'm Reimu, and this is Sora, Donald, and Goofy."

"I'm Jasmine." She moved out from behind the crates. "My father is the sultan of Agrabah."

"Uh… So that makes you a princess." Goofy said.

"But he has been deposed by Jafar, who now controls the city." She looked down sadly.

"Jafar?" Goofy tilted his head.

"You haven't heard of him?" Jasmine looked surprised.

"We're, ah, from out of town." Reimu said, glancing at Sora, who grinned.

"He's the royal vizier. He's gained evil powers and seized Agrabah. He's desperately looking for something—something he calls the 'Keyhole'." She looked surprised at the sudden gasps from them. "Jafar caught me trying to escape, but _he_ helped me."

"Who helped you?" Sora asked.

"We were hiding nearby, but he left a while ago to take care of something…" She looked worried. "Oh, I hope Aladdin's all right."

"Aladdin? Where might I find this street rat?" A man's voice came from above them; they all looked up to see Jafar standing on a walkway higher up.

"Ngh-!" Jasmine stepped back in fear. Jafar smirked.

"Jasmine, allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess." He grinned wickedly. "These little rats won't do, you see."

"Oh? Rats, you say?" A new voice, a girl's voice, came from nowhere. "That's funny. They look more like_ cats_ to me. What do you think, Unzan?"

Jafar scowled and looked straight ahead. The people on the ground turned around and looked up, and gasped together at the blue-haired girl _floating in the air_, a huge pink cloud floating around her… with an old man's face. It seemed to be conversing with her, as she laughed.

"Ahahahaha! That's so true. And yes, I agree. There's really no mercy to be given to someone who harasses and means to harm a member of the royal family." She smiled at Jafar. "And besides that, Unzan detests anyone who would attack an innocent girl." She raised her fist- which was holding a golden ring. "As do I."

Jafar scowled, and with a wave of his hand, summoned a lot of Heartless.

"Jasmine… Run!" Sora said, summoning the Keyblade. She nodded and ran out of the alley. Reimu summoned Homing Amulet and rose up into the air next to the blue-haired girl, who raised her eyebrows in surprise and smiled wider.

"Ah, the boy who holds the key and the little priestess." He glared at the two of them, and summoned even more Heartless, so that the alley was just about completely full of the monsters. He simply walked away, leaving them to fight the creatures off.

"Why, this is no good, is it? You poor kids can't move with all these demons!" The girl giggled. She looked at the pink cloud. "Unzan, could you maybe lend them… a _hand_?" She giggled at that as well. Reimu was about to ask her what was so funny, when Unzan began to quickly grow and grow in size until he was even huger than before, and the next thing Reimu knew she was staring at a huge, pink fist crashing down on the mass of Heartless, just barely missing the boys on the ground, but effectively crushing a large number of the Heartless.

"…Wow." She looked at the strange girl and her weird old man cloud. "Who _are_ you?"

"My name is Ichirin, and this is my friend Unzan." Ichirin smiled. "How about we have full introductions later, when these monsters are all eradicated?"

"Uh, yeah! Good idea." Reimu nodded, and activated Homing Amulet, shooting at the Bandits, Shadows, and Pot Spiders below. The boys were once again having trouble with the Bandits' scimitars, so she focused on destroying them first. Next to her, Ichirin kept pointing at individual Heartless and Unzan, his fists much smaller now, punched them right into the waiting weapons of the boys. Finally, there was only one Shadow left, and as it tried to swipe at Sora, Ichirin dropped down from the air and landed right on it, destroying it. As the others put away their weapons, she patted Unzan's head (strange, as he was a cloud) and smiled at them.

"So, who are you? You're not from around here."

"I'm Sora, and this is Reimu, Donald, and Goofy." Sora pointed at each of them. "Who are you? Are you a youkai?"

"Oh? Yes, I am a youkai. As I said to Miss Reimu, I am Ichirin! And this old man here is Unzan." The cloud man nodded in greeting at them. "He's my genie."

"G-genie?!" Donald exclaimed, surprised.

"Yes!" Ichirin held up the golden ring in her hand. "The genie of the ring."

"So, so can he grant wishes?!" Reimu asked excitedly.

"Well, no. Not anymore." Ichirin said. "But, I can tell you our story later, new friends. We ought to go find the boy the princess was speaking of, shouldn't we?"

"That's right! Jasmine's in trouble!" Sora cried. "We need to find that Aladdin guy!"

"Fortunately for us, we know where the thief boy lives!" Ichirin said happily, as Unzan nodded. "Come, new friends! The key to saving the princess is only one jump ahead!"

* * *

**and then they break out into song**

**hey everyone it's frost and this is late i am sorry**

**"frost where the hell have you been. why haven't you been writing for this." well friends allow my friend wikipedia to tell you the two reasons that i have not been doing anything for this for so long despite it being summer and thus having a lot of time to be working on this:**

**"__****Animal Crossing: New Leaf** (とびだせ どうぶつの森 _Tobidase Dōbutsu no Mori_?, "Animal Forest: Jump Out")[6] is a life simulation video game for the Nintendo 3DS console and the fourth main title in Nintendo's _Animal Crossing_ series, where the player character lives in a rural village populated with anthropomorphic animals. In this installment, the player takes control of the mayor instead of a normal villager.[7] The game was first released on November 8, 2012, in Japan and was later released in North America, Europe and Australia in June 2013. The game has received very positive reviews, gaining aggregate scores of 88 and 87.30% on Metacritic and GameRankings, so far making it the highest rated game in the _Animal Crossing_ series.[8][9]"

**"_Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable_ (ペルソナ3 ポータブル?), an enhanced remake of _Persona 3_ for the PlayStation Portable, was released in Japan on November 1, 2009,[7] and released in North America on July 6, 2010.[66] It came to most of Europe on 29 April 2011 and the UK on 28 April 2011. The announcement in _Famitsū_ revealed that the player would have the option to play as a female character. This selection alters some aspects of the story: the first Persona gained by the Protagonist, Orpheus, has a different appearance; Igor's assistant in the Velvet Room, Elizabeth, can be replaced with a male equivalent named Theodore.[67] The gender choice also alters some aspects of the Social Link stories. In addition to the new playable character, there are two new difficulty levels to select from alongside the original game's three. _Persona 3 Portable_ only includes the story of the original _Persona 3_;[68] however, general changes have been made to the plot, regardless of character choice.[7]"**

**so! yeah. that happened. sorry. now onto comments about the fic itself ah ha ha ah**

**yes indeedy i have changed unzan. now he is a genie to fit with the setting. all will be explained, i promise you. also ichirin looks how she did in UFO. so there's that too. and apparently pinocchio isn't only looking for his father! i hope this sister of his is okay. heheheh**

**next time: street rats! genies! caves of wonders! sora learning aero which i forgot to have him learn in this chapter!**

**comments, questions, and suggestions always appreciated. as always, check out the link on my profile for dumb drawings i make for this! yee!  
**


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